E: Everyone Dry Your Eye

When this sugar mama finally found her sugar (ie-a job), part of the sweetness of it was having a desk five feet from dear Beth Wilson. Beth is a college friend whose life took a turn similar to ours. After marrying Lee in 2005, they moved up to Louisville to go to school at Southern. When we moved here six months later, she & Lee were at our door, ready to move in our boxes in the snow. A few months after we got here, I was hired at the same law firm as Beth. So we became friends, coworkers, fellow sugarmamas putting our husbands through school, and, best of all, Christian sisters trying to encourage one another at work and at home. I’ll be honest that with desks so close to one another, sometimes our work ethic gave way to chattiness, but overall I think we were both better workers because of the other. At least I know I was. God gave me Beth to help me adjust to the demands of the corporate world, and I’m entirely grateful.

What began as Jack Bauer Power Hour eventually evolved into what we now endearingly refer to as MND. The Wilsons began opening their home every Monday night for six of us, then ten, then twelve and even upwards of twenty. She graciously put food on the table for us all as we chatted, laughed, and enjoyed either “24” or “Last Man Standing.” I have never seen the gift of hospitality so evidently displayed as I have through Beth.

But all that God did to use the Wilsons here in Louisville, in His gracious plan, He has decided to use them elsewhere. Lee accepted a job at Union University and he & Beth bought a house and moved there in January. They moved there just before the tornado hit and were able to be there for the ministry to the students & community that followed the destruction. We had a going away party at work and the last MND at the Wilson’s home. At first, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to make it at the office without Beth’s encouragement and sensitivity. But the Lord has certainly sustained me the past five months without her. Beth’s legacy of MND has lived on, and we now alternate host homes between the five couples.

So, yes, dry your eye that the Wilsons moved on. But we are oh-so thankful for how the Lord intersected our lives for a season and for how He is now using them where they are. And in that we can rejoice.