Hi Michelle,

thanks for your post, and welcome to the PowerPoint Forum.

My adivce is to be honest. As you say, you have been through so much together been through up and downs, just as we all must with those who share our lives, and it would be wrong pretend that there had only only been good times. People and most importantly, your sister-in-law would now it was untrue.

I should start perhaps with something like,

"George Washington once said that, 'True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation'.

My sister-in-law (her name) and I have grown together, through the years, and experienced happy  times and sad times, hard times and good. My sister-in-law (her name) is a person with whom I may be sincere and before her I may think aloud.

To open your heart and feelings to someone who shares your life is not always easy. We sometimes say things we regret and we sometimes do things that we wish we could undo. But in many ways the canvas of life which is handed to us when we are born does not come with an eraser, or a blank page to start again.

As we life we our life, we stain our canvas, lit along the way with joy and goodness, and often tainted with selfishness and human failings.

At the end our work may not hang in the Louvre, at the Getty Museum, or handled by national trust. But the splashes of emotion, and feelings, and friendship that hit our canvas often abosrb as well to those closest to us.

My sister-in-law (her name), today has choosen to add direction, warm hues, goodness and grace to her canvas, and it brings me great joy to be here with her, in trust of these values, as she accepts God's blessing.

As a friend, she has bore my weight and troubles, and as a family member, responsibilties of our group. Today with her baptism, she welcomes the lord into her life, a strength to draw upon, whose guiding hand will add joy and goodness every day."

Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.

For each scene,
he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand.
One belonged to him, and the other to the Lord.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him,
he looked back at the footprints in the sand.

He noticed
that many times along the path of his life,
there was only one set of footprints.
He also noticed that it happened
at the very lowest
and saddest times in his life.
This really bothered him
and he questioned the Lord about it.:

"Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you,
you'd walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during
the most troublesome times in my life,
there is only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why when I needed you the most
you would leave me."

The Lord replied,
"My precious, precious child,
I love you and would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffering,
when you see only one set of footprints,
it was then I carried you."

Jonathan Stock, Presentation Consultant