Last week my hub received two wonderful texts among the hundreds of business texts he receives every week. He asked me if he was dying because he couldn’t understand why these two friends would write him these texts.

I wish I could screen shot the two texts so that I could share it here but of course that would be super inappropriate because they were very personal. Not to mention one of the texts was so long, there would be no way to get the entire text in less than 3 screen shots. When the hub showed me that long text, I held in the tears until he went up to bed. Then I sat at the kitchen table sobbing. (I seem to be doing a lot of crying these days).

The next day when he was at work, my hub forwarded me a text that he received from another friend. My hub asked, “Am I dying and don’t know it? Why is everyone texting me these nice texts?” and then he included the most wonderful cut/pasted text from his cell. It was from a colleague at the Vikings.

I am so grateful for these two thoughtful pinches that came via texts to my hub. One text may have taken longer to write; there was a lot of thought put into the content because it was deep. Moreover, the other text, although short, spoke volumes as well. In case you’re wondering, no, my hub isn’t dying. He’s just currently in the trenches at work and so it is remarkable that these two texts did not get lost in the shuffle. I read both of them and I consider the opportunities to do so as gifts. Every wife would be proud of their guy if they had the chance to read such wonderful sentiments about him.

Most men have a hard time saying, “Thank you”, “You matter to me” and/or “I’m glad we’re friends.” These are the unwritten, unspoken but understood friendship thoughts that guys don’t spell out in texts. However, there are always exceptions. My hub’s two friends laid it all out on the table - in black + white - and in a text.

The first of these two texts that my hub received consisted of wonderful assessments, analogies, memories and observations. In summary, it was a reflection of the friendship the two of them have had since they were teenagers. Even though the tone of the text was very solemn, one could not help but feel hopeful and warm. My assessment of this long text was that it came from a friend who’s father’s life is soon coming to an end. And on the friend’s journey of finding the true meaning of life, he discovers that having steady, loyal, good friends like my hub for all these years was so important. Let me tell you, at a time when we have unexpectedly lost the friendships of some new friends, to hear all of this from an old friend is CLUTCH.

The other text thanked my hub for taking a chance on him many years ago and he conveyed, he couldn’t be where he was today without his help. Let me tell you, at a time when we feel like nothing we’re doing is right or turning out the way it should, a text like that is GOLD.

I have been in Mama Bear mode ever since our head coach was fired. It was a frustrating season and what’s been even more frustrating is that I could not help my hub in his career in any way. There is nothing I could do to make this season suck less. And that is why I cried that night. I was in awe that God used my hub’s high school buddy to relay to us that we’re not in bad shape, we still have something good to offer to the community and we are to be reminded that we have many who support us.

There’s a saying, “Friends are like stars, you don’t always see them but you know they are always there.” Hearing from friends when everything around us is out of our control is such a gift. As I told my hub, receiving these pinches when he did was not a coincidence. I feel like God watches over us and nudges us when we get stuck and feel alone. And in the busy-ness of the world and the silence of most men, I’m so grateful that these guys were not only brave but generous with their time to write personal, meaningful texts. The timing was perfect.

Pinches,

Barb