So many thoughts...

...running through my head tonight.  The weekend ended better than I had anticipated it would.  Still, it certainly did not end how I had hoped it would.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've grown quite close to someone as of late.  This person is so amazing.  He has incredible life experiences.  He has both common sense and great intellect.  He's a man full of integrity and perhaps most importantly to me, he's become a true friend.  He's honest with me when I need him to be (especially when I'm not expecting it).  He's kind and gentle.  He's so very Christlike.  He's really inspired me to be a better person and my life has certainly been enriched from knowing him.

This weekend he made a very, very tough decision.  A decision that I seem to constantly struggle with and yet he's made it.  I know that it has certainly not been an easy decision to make and I respect him all the more for making it.  The only down-side to his decision, and it's selfish of me, is in regards to how it affects my life.  Some people say that it is better to have loved and lost then to have never loved at all.  For me, I am grateful for the chance to have loved and perhaps lost in one sense but to have gained something greater in another sense.

As I have pondered some regarding spiritual help for both the path that he has chosen for his life and the point that my life is currently at, I once again found myself in the Psalms.  The end of Psalm 27 says:

"Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord."

My prayer this night, for my very dear friend, is for continued and greater courage.  Wait, my friend, on the Lord and he will strengthen thine heart...I know he will.