Heart to Heart Luncheon

Our Bible study group had a luncheon scheduled for yesterday called the Heart To Heart Luncheon.  We were to decide, as our individual groups, what we wanted to do for lunch.  At first, I thought maybe a potluck at my house since I’m close to the church, or maybe we could go out somewhere.  Well, Miss Diane spoke up and invited us to her home for lunch.  I was instantly excited!

My group is several girls that are close to my age and mostly girls in my season of life – we have young children.  Diane is my mom’s age.  And a southern belle if ever I saw one!  Diane prays before each Bible study term begins to see which group God is calling her to be in and for this term, she chose our group…and what a BLESSING!  I didn’t know really who she was before that first Tuesday meeting, but after about a minute and a half, I knew I would come to love this lady!  And boy, have I!!  Imagine a softer version of Paula Deen that just loves Jesus to pieces, and there you have Diane.  Contagious, people!  Seriously. Love her to pieces.

So when Diane said she would like to have us over to her house for lunch, I was excited.  Then she started talking about what she would serve.  Y’all, I just nearly fell out right there at that table when she was talking.  Now, mind you, it wasn’t anything over the top fancy, but just the way she was describing everything gave me major warm fuzzies.  Diane is a hostess extraordinaire! I’ve seen her pictures on facebook, so I knew it was going to be fun and special!  I didn’t realize just how special until we got there.

I knew what neighborhood Diane lived in, so I figured we were going to a nice house.  Yeah.  That’s the understatement of the century.  Her front porch alone was decorated way cuter than my whole house!  Diane of course greeted us at the door and was so excited we were there.  She took us on a tour of her house, and let me just go ahead and say, I could have looked around in there for another 2 hours at all the detail she has put into her home.  One of my favorite things was when she was showing us pictures in her grandson’s room of her husband and father.  There were only 4 or 5 pictures, but each one was very special and had a story behind it.  THAT is my favorite.  I love pictures with special meaning like that and I love to know the history behind the picture.  We all loved looking around and as we came down her staircase, she had us all stop for a picture.  Aren’t we cute?! :)

We came downstairs and Diane showed us to the table, which she had set so beautifully. She had special places for each of us with little heart gifts at each place setting!  Oh my word!!  How precious!  We had goblets for our tea or water, gold silverware that was just gorgeous, round pink placemats, and our plates were already filled with fabulous food!  Let me tell you what was on our plate: chicken salad on a lettuce leaf (precious…and DELICIOUS!!), mini raisin bread sandwiches with a cream cheese filling, a fruit and marshmallow salad with pecans, and chocolate covered strawberries.  Was that not a little tea room menu right there?!  Heaven, I tell you!  H.E.A.V.E.N.  Our dessert was a cake that Aimee made with her daughters that Diane served on these tiny little plates that were just absolutely adorable!!  LOVED THAT!!  We also had a little tray at the top of our plate with three small pastel colored mint candies.  Oh my word.  I mean, really.  Could you get any sweeter?!  It’s like that trip to Brighton I had at Christmas where they wrapped up my small little purchase like it was a glorious special treasure and how special I felt at that store.  That’s the way it was at Diane’s house.  I felt SOOO special!!  I still get goose bumps thinking of it!

The most special part of the whole thing, though, was the sweet conversation we all had.  We had two ladies from our group that couldn’t join us and there was another group that only had two ladies in it that day, so Diane invited them to come and fill the spaces we would have.  It was such a sweet time of conversation and it made me want to get to know those ladies even more!  I just love visiting with godly ladies and enjoying times of sweet fellowship.

Overall, it was one of the coolest lunches I’ve ever attended.  I am still not over how special I felt.  And let me just state that I didn’t feel special because all of the “stuff”, or how nice Diane’s house is, or because of the food, or any of that.  It was because of the time that Diane took to make things special, and her attitude about it.  It was just so very thoughtful.  And the thoughtfulness is what makes all the difference in the world, gold silverware or plastic.  If it’s thoughtful, it’s special!! 

And Diane, if you’re reading this, I love you, my sweet Southern Belle!!  Thank you soooooo much for having us over, for treating us like royalty, and for being such a genuine godly example to all of us!  I thank God daily that He directed you to our group.  What a BLESSING!!!