friend finder

Friendship is a really weird thing. I have sat here a few minutes to try and think of other words beside "weird" and "thing" but my brain is fried and I will just have to leave it to my elementary statement...its a weird thing.

In my younger years having friends was nothing to think about...it was done naturally and was quite easy. You would make a friend and keep that friend, unless a move, different school, or boy tore you apart. I loved having lots of friends...a bunch of close comrades that were there with you sharing in all your joys and hardships...easy,simple. The memories I made with these people, that I chose to share a majority of my childhood life with, could never be forgotten...they are etched in my heart and every once in awhile flash across my mind and makes me giggle.

I say all this because friendships for me have changed so drastically as an adult. Maybe I am the only one that thinks this but, it is no longer easy to keep a friendship a float and going strong? In the past few years, especially for me, I have lost friends that I thought would be life long and due to events in their life and mine it seems impossible to rekindle. Gone are the days where I can call up a girlfriend, they stop what they're doing, devote as much time to me as needed and vise versa. As an adult you barely have time for you let alone time for others outside of your family, so the investment you can put into any new friendships at this age is futile and weak.

Once you become a mother...especially when you become a mother....sometimes the obstacles in womens friendships are as minor as not having the same aged kids and as major as husbands having a strong preference on who your BFF should be! In the past few years I have really seen it all and realized that sometimes God filters people out of your life to protect you and puts people into your life to lift you back up. It is hard to lose people in your life that you have invested so much of yourself into but maybe that's the only reason you were put into their life to begin with...to give them what you gave them and move on?

I know now, as Im getting older, that a true friend is such a precious gift. As God continues to show me the importance of these relationships with the women in my life, it encourages me to be an even greater friend. It may not be as easy to "pour into" some of my friends lives right now because we are on either totally different life paths or we don't have a spare second to pee but I'm hoping our relationships endure because when those crucial times flare up in life...there is nothing better than a loving friend to walk through it with you. I'm praying that God continues to deepen the friendships I have now and will continue to bring women into my life that encourage me and love me for who I am. It sounds like a simple request...a small thought...but not until something is taken from you do realize the importance of it in your life.