Rally the Troops!

Ping “Oh, I’ve got a new text message,” I think to myself. And then, Ping, Ping, Ping. And I know, almost without looking, it’s “the girls.” Something is up and “the troops” are being called into action. These three women are some of my closest friends. If I’m having a bad day, I simply need to send a text and say, “Please pray.” There doesn’t need to be an explanation – though, as you might guess, I usually give one – and they spring into action, praying and encouraging.

But even when our needs are very real and oftentimes painful, we somehow manage to slip in just enough humor to keep spirits up and on occasion, offer a good belly laugh. And belly laughs are the best kind of medicine there is.

These girlfriends of mine are HUGE into emoticons. And by HUGE I mean, they LOVE them and, if given the opportunity, I have no doubt they could write an entire book using only little tiny pictures of food, faces in a variety of moods, hearts, and plant life.

This past week the husband of one of the girls had a serious back issue that landed him in the hospital. Most of Wednesday was spent with prayer requests, messages, and updates going back and forth. I was on the road Wednesday night when I heard the ping, ping, ping of an update coming in. Though I make it a point NOT to read text messages when I’m driving, I will have Siri (my little iPhone computer assistant) read them to me. If you’ve never had Siri read you a text message filled with emoticons you should try to make that happen. It’s hysterical! This is how it sounded the other night when I tapped the button on my Bluetooth and said, “Read text messages.”

Insert digital male voice: You have three text messages. Your first message is from the group that includes Susie Sugar, Joanie Jumperson, and one other. (No, these aren’t their real names.) Your message from the group that includes Susie Sugar, Joanie Jumperson, and one other says: “Looks like he’s spending the night. Thanks for all hands pressed together with light skin tone, hands pressed together with light skin tone, hands pressed together with light skin tone (that would be praying hands), and please keep them coming. Two circling hearts. Two circling hearts.”

Siri continued on with reading the messages while I was still trying to decode what the emoticons from the first one meant. You have a message from the group that includes Susie Sugar, Joanie Jumperson, and one other. (I was starting to feel sorry for the “one other” who never got mentioned.) Your message from the group that includes Susie Sugar, Joanie Jumperson and one other says: What are they planning to do to help his back? I’m praying hands pressed together, red heart, red double exclamation mark, red heart, hands pressed together, red heart.

One more time: You have a message from the group that includes Susie Sugar, Joanie Jumperson, and one other. Your message from the group that includes Susie Sugar, Joanie Jumperson and one other says: Time and physical therapy. (No emoticons, the poor girl was tired!)

How does one not laugh at that? Not one person was trying to be funny and, as you can see it was a pretty serious conversation, yet listening to the reading of those emoticons simply cracked me up.

Girlfriends are the best! They can make you laugh even when without trying. I hope you have friends like this. They may not be the emoticon type but still, I hope they cry with you when are sad, are happy for you when things are going well, rally around you in hard times, and maybe, just maybe, help you get the giggles when you simply need a laugh.

I hope your day is a smiling face, red heart filled kind of day. I’m hands pressed together with light skin tones for you. Winking face blowing kiss.