Learn, Laugh, Lauren

Today’s birthday blog is in honor of my traveling buddy, Vanderbilt nursing classmate, Sadie Robertson-loving sister in Christ. I always roll my eyes so hard when I see the phrase “Live, Laugh, Love” on a coffee cup, doormat, pillow, fill in the blank. So naturally I decided to do a little play on words to make fun of all these amazingly cringy sayings. But in all seriousness, I couldn’t think of two other words that make me think of Lauren more than learn and laugh. For those of you that do not know Lauren, she is undoubtedly the funniest person on this planet, making each and every human around her laugh at every step. She has also been an irreplaceable sense of support these last six months, as I have learned so much from watching her walk with the Lord. My experience in Brazil would not have been the same without her, thus I decided to dedicate today’s post to just how thankful I am God placed her in my life and the importance of accountability. Some of you may be thinking okay sweet that’s great and all but why should I read this? Well hopefully you all can witness a small piece of our experiences together and maybe, just maybe y’all will be able to learn something from her as I have.

Soooo…24 years calls for 24 things I appreciate about Lauren/good memories/things she has taught me. Lol sorry don’t mind my cheesiness.

1. Her ability to go with the flow
2. How trusting she is of everyone. If you know me trust is just not something that comes naturally, and I am confident God has used Lauren to teach me what a healthy trust really looks like
3. Her realness in sharing her struggles with me and not judging me for mine
4. Her dedication to open and honest communication. I hate beating around the bush, so I really admire this
5. All the fun we have together at every turn. I kid you not we can’t go 5 minutes without laughing. Probably at something insanely stupid that nobody else would even find funny
6. Her ability to respect my crazy, anxious, all over the place personality even though it is drastically different from hers
7. All the meals we cooked together in Brazil—from Bible study dinners to American breakfasts for our friends—I will always cherish these times of rushing to get everything prepared while simultaneously jamming out to good music, which leads me to my next point…
8. Our shared music tastes. Just think about that friend you always want to hand the aux to because they are going to play both old, tried and true bops and new ones you haven’t heard but must add to your playlist. I’ll just say this made for some pretty good vibes in our home
9. Our way too early mornings before work spent studying the word and writing out our day’s prayer at the table together. Though we each did this on our own, there was something about meeting with our Father at the same time that felt very powerful
10. The week we spent in Rio before arriving in Teresina. Adventuring around a new beautiful city together was a learning, but extraordinarily memorable experience
11. Her dedication to generosity. It is so refreshing, especially now being back in a culture that is consumed with self-serving at every turn, to have someone holding me accountable to keep my eyes locked on Jesus, the example of outward service, rather than pointed inward on my own comfortability
12. Our shared desire to go back to Brazil as much as possible and dream of serving as nurse practitioners in the country that will always be our second home
13. Our bond from “fighting the good fight” of faith together as Paul would say, from temptations to service to joys and everything in between
14. Cleaning our house together. I know it sounds silly but there was something therapeutic about turning some music on and using our hands to clean a place that had been filled with fellowship, laughter, and gospel conversations all week, prepping it for the same cycle the following week. Okay maybe we didn’t clean EVERY week, but you get the point.
15. Taking the Sabbath as a true day of rest—fasting, watching sermons on the couch, having deep conversations, planning our week. I simply would not have made it in my time in Brazil without our Sunday’s
16. Our shared intentionality about discussing what the Lord was teaching us and how we could improve. She is always challenging me to be a better person, friend, and Christian
17. Her gift of speaking life and wisdom into me and desire for me to do the same. Pouring out and getting filled up at the same rate in a friendship is so special
18. Being able to dance as crazy and stupid as my heart desires, knowing I will be met by Lauren doing the same
19. Our nightly discussions about what our “something sweet” was going to be. It is simply not in our DNA to go to bed without some kind of dessert
20. Getting made fun of every time I stated the blatantly obvious or said “aqui à direita” (here on the right) when being dropped off at our house by an Uber. Lauren has a true gift of being able to make fun of someone in a loving way
21. Passing by each other in the hallway of the school we taught at, usually exchanging quick, funny stories about something that had happened that day. These moments always reminded me that I wasn’t in it alone
22. Getting to share the gospel together. Our mutual commitment to building true relationships, meeting others exactly where they were out of respect for their culture, was a vital element of our ministry
23. The way we would build each other up when one of us was having a rather draining or discouraging day
24. Last, but definitely not least, her loving eyes for others. I can’t recall a single time that Lauren saw someone and judged them for their looks, beliefs, opinions, or differences.

My hope and prayer is that through this you were all able to catch a glimpse at what an inspiring friend Lauren is and what true Christian accountability looks like. Simply put, it is being dedicated to growing closer to Christ together and all that entails. I am beyond thankful to have such a courageous, intelligent, hard-working, kind, and genuine human in my life. Cheers to 24 years Lauren! Love you<3