“When is Annie coming back?” My five year old son asked me that last week as we played cars on the floor. Annie hasn’t been here in over a year. In his mind, too long. He wants her to come back.
I get it. Annie is one of the coolest girls I know. She has this unique ability to make everyone, from toddler to teenager to bonafide grown up, feel important. She knows how to stay present in the moment. She also has legit phrasing skills, once calling the green pepper a flavor hoarder. Or maybe it was flavor hog. Flavor thief? Either way, now I can’t eat salsa without tasting that pushy green pepper.
During one of her visits, my sister, Dad and I shared a meal with Annie. It was good conversation, both lots of talking and lots of listening. Dad later said, “That Annie, she’s something special.” Agreed.
Annie, teaching then-sophomore girls in our youth group.
Maybe you think Annie is amazing too – she blogs at Annie Blogs, she got brave and wrote about singleness for (in)courage, she moved to Scotland because she sensed God was calling her there for a time, and she self-published her own book, From Head to Foot. It was so awesome that Zondervan bought it, re-edited, re-vised and re-covered it and now we get a new book, Perfectly Unique. It releases in September.
Seriously, my high school girls small group read From Head to Foot last semester and it was a huge hit. The content was relevant and Biblical. Mostly though, it was Annie. We got to know her, could hear her voice, understand her perspective. We trusted her as a group.
But before the book, before Zondervan, before Scotland, she was already amazing. I trusted her as a friend. Still do.
Sometimes in this business of book writing, it can be lonely. You look at what other people are doing and compare yourself, for better or worse. You know it isn’t good for you, you know it won’t help, but there you go, doing it. And Monday morning before your day has even started, you feel discouraged and you can’t place why.
I have never felt that way with Annie. And I don’t think that’s because of me, I think it’s because of her.
Today I’m joining in the chorus of voices celebrating the women in our lives who are already amazing in honor of our friend, Holley Gerth’s beautiful new book, You’re Already Amazing. I endorsed that book, yes I did. And I didn’t do so half-heartedly. It’s a lovely book, filled with wisdom and encouragement and it would make a really great small group study.
Is there someone in your life who is amazing? Would you be willing to share her with us today? You can write a post and link up over at Holley’s place, or you can simply send out a tweet using the hashtag #AlreadyAmazing. Let’s be generous with our support of other women. I don’t believe we’ll ever regret it.
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