One of my best friends for many years is Dana Valcourt.  If you look the word "trouble" up in the dictionary, you might possibly find a picture of Dana and myself.  You will easily recognize us, I would have the halo and he would have the pitchfork.  If a person could choose their family, I would want him to be my brother.

Heather is Dana's wife, who I have grown to love, respect and consider a good friend.  During the past few months, she has helped me when I was unsure about women, and offered me dating advice and even the secret workings of a male-female relationships.  May I also point out, she has also gotten my butt into trouble a couple of times.

The nice thing about my friendship with this couple is the honesty that we possess with each other.  They have known when to speak up, fuss at me, and when just not to say anything.  Dana and Heather can honestly say that they have seen me sad, happy, mad and totally confused.  What better reason to have friends?

On Tuesday, I found out that Heather had several tests done to see if she had a malignant cancer in her breast.  She was to get the results from the test on Wednesday, the following day.  That night was bad because it brought back memories of hospital rooms, doctors and death.

How could I help my friends, when I was still hurting and couldn't help myself?

Most of the night, in my head I tried to find the words that I thought would give him comfort.  My brain became flooded with images of Debbie's death and increased the longing of wanting her back by my side.  The more the thoughts ran through my head, the harder it became to think of my friend's needs.

After many hours of tossing and turning in bed, the bad thoughts eventually ceased and sleep finally overtook my body.  The good news is that the cancer was not malignant, but the doctors want to totally remove the mass. 

I know that we bow our head in reverence to God when we pray, but it seems like we should raise our face up and look toward heaven.  I often look upward in church when we say our prayers, the glow of the light through my eyelids makes me feel like God is right there with me.

As I have went through this ordeal, I have learned more about praying and how God answers our prayers.  Prayers should not be filled with asking God to fill our personal wants, but should be used to ask for the things that other people need. 

For example, when driving down the highway, don't pray for God's help to protect you from idiot drivers, but for God to give the other idiots the wisdom to drive properly.