Friends Will Never Leaf You Alone

Have you ever said yes to something without knowing completely what you are getting yourself into? Usually this doesn't happen to me, but yesterday was an exception. It started plainly enough. I got up early, so I could eat some bacon and eggs before my 7 o'clock class. As I walked through the breakfast line, the lady serving the eggs said that she had heard that i was looking to rake some leaves (the day before, I had asked Laverna, another cafe lady, if she needed her yard raked. I was looking for a service project my 8th grade guys small group could do, but she said she didn't have many leaves in her yard). With hesitation, I shook my head yes, and by the end of the conversation I had made a date to rake her yard that afternoon. Unfortunately, most of the guys in my small group wrestle for the school, so they couldn't help me...I was all by myself!

Later, I asked a couple of my friends if they could help, but they couldn't because they had too much homework to do. Then I thought to myself, I'll ask Blake Park...he is a hard worker and we are pretty close. Luckily, he said yes and by 2:15 we were on our way to 2611 S Oliver to rake this lady's yard. In my conversation with her that morning, she said her yard was kind of big, but nothing that a small group of guys couldn't handle. Blake and I pulled into her drive way and saw barely any leaves! We thought it was going to be a piece of cake, but we hadn't seen the back yard! As she took us around the house to the backyard, our eyes opened wide with fear of what laid before us: Several hundred square yards of leaves! To make matters worse, the rakes we were going to use were from the civil war era, my rake ended up giving me several splinters.

Blake and I looked at each other without saying a word and got to work. About twenty minutes later, I said, "Blake...my bad! I had no idea." He just shook his head with a smile and started raking again.

(The yard went past the shed.)

Blake is just one person I am grateful to have in my life. There are many others, and I thank God for those people he has placed in my life. These people build me up, and knock me down when I need it. They laugh with me and laugh at me, but no matter what...I know they love me. True friends will be by your side in the tough times. They will be there in the joyous times. But best of all, they will be there for you when you get into something that is way to big for you to handle all by yourself...like raking leaves!