roses in a mason jar

I'm a Southern girl.  Born and raised in the great state of Tennessee. Go Vols.  I drink sweet tea, love big porches, and expect for a man to open my door.  It's common courtesy, of course.  All of this concludes one thing about all southern woman that I am no exception to: I love mason jars.  I moved into my own apartment this year in which I had to provide everything.  The furniture, the dishes, the vacuum, the trashcan, the everything.  Luckily, at the last minute I got a roommate, but I still had everything already picked out and done.  The one thing I wanted was mason jars as cups.  Oddly, my step-dad had an entire case of them in our basement.  I love my mason jars. Some of them still have some of the paper for whatever they were still used for back in the day peeling off.  They add just a touch of charm to my cabinet of dishes. 

A few days ago, my boyfriend very sweetly gave me a dozen roses for no good reason at all.  He's a gentleman, something all good Southern women also love.  I don't spend much time in my apartment, so I cut them stems off, stuck them in a mason jar, and brought them to my desk at work.  You have no idea the smile that that mason jar and roses brings to my face just by being there.  It's the little things.  I know that it has meaning behind it, but it's so awesome to me how something so simple can brighten my whole day. 

Our Christian fellowship is like this presence.  I feel bad when someone is having a bad day, and I don't know what to do to console them.  I feel like a Christian failure when the right Bible verse to tell someone in their time of need.  It's a constant battle in my mind when I'm listening to someone who has a need or is having a bad day to truly listen and fight the temptation to think about "the perfect thing to say" at that moment. It's a great feeling when a friend later in life remembers some great spiritual knowledge that you shed on them by the grace of the Holy Spirit, but I've found the times that are the most binding and helpful are the times that I'm just willing to be a presence.  Just to show I want to be there.  That in itself has meaning.  Just like Wal-Mart flowers in a Mason Jar.