I read this on someone’s face book page and
I decided it was such a good comment that it was going into my blog as a starting point for a post. Throughout the years when growing up attachments were very important to me.
Perhaps because of the way we were raised as children
or perhaps it was just my personality.
In our address book there are names that we have known for years.
My famous tease is:
“Once you have met me I am hard to get rid of.”
Some of our friends even go back to elementary school years.
These friends have been treasures to me.
They have been great encouragement and great prayer partners.
Sometimes in church my mind will move into a direction of,
“oh I want to meet someone new and build a good friendship”
then the reality comes to me.
If time allowed it the friends who have walked with us
through good and bad are only a phone call away.
If you think of it even Jesus only had twelve
who he chose to share his ‘life’s most intimate journey with.
Why do we expect ourselves to have more than that?
The friends who have been with us through those hard places in our lives or the good times and perhaps even the funny times they are the ones we hold dear to our hearts.
We have made memories with them.
Age has slowed me down and as that has happened the desire of my heart has been to have real friends.
Authentic friendships that demand nothing other than to be real.
There is no time for acquaintances who need maintained like a car in a body shop.
We all have met those kind of people
they are high maintenance they pull the life out of you any time they can.
When I have a need to share with someone and that someone is my husband
plus a good friend it is way more beneficial
to share with someone who values me and who listens and who
really sincerely cares about life as I experience it.
That is what it means to be real.
Real friendships stay real and whole and true
no matter how much time goes between visits.
Years can go by and one lunch visit makes it feel like nothing ever changed.
When one of my ‘good friends from junior high’ became very ill,
I prayed and prayed for her.
My tears were so deep and heavy wanting her to survive and live.
She is healthy now and doing very well but it surprised me how deeply I cared for her.
Real friends are gifts we can give ourselves.
Have you given yourself any lately?
