let’s face it, it happens. we don’t want it to ever happen to us. ever. but it does. and when it does, it sure does hurt. and most times, at least in my case, it blindsides you.
what my heart craves is a true Biblical bestie. but lately, i’ve been asking myself what a Biblical bestie is. i mean, are my standards too high? am i too picky? are the friendship issues always my fault? all i know is in the end, i’m always the one left here, mouth agape, wondering what happened. because…i thought we were friends.
faithfulness and loyalty are key to true friendship. without them, we feel betrayed, left out, and lonely. in true friendship there is no turning away. God designed us for lasting relationships, he wants us to have friends here on earth!
i’ve realized throughout the years that i don’t need a bucketful of friends to be happy or to feel validated. all i need is handful of true friends, Biblical besties. i am completely blessed to have a few of these amazing gals in my life. one of them has even been there since high school, bless her heart. my handful of friends might each look different, and have different personalities, but i hold each of them close to my heart. and i know that with one phone call they would be here for me, and i for them.
Beautiful.
This is great. I have been many friends, but it's those real Biblical friends who have touched my heart in precious ways. I have been blessed with godly young women who have cried with me, laughed with me, corrected me when I was veering off the path, encouraged me through seasons of anxiety, and poured prayer and a Christ-like compassion over me in rough times. Those are precious friends. And I typically know that they are those type of friends if I am more drawn to Jesus because of our friendship instead of more drawn to just our friendship.
I do, however, disagree that these friendships should mainly be with women from the same seasons of life. While it does make it a lot easier to understand each other and relate to one another's struggles if we stick with women who are in the same season, I do not think we grow as much as we could if we stretched our friendship horizons out to women from other seasons. I have been so very blessed by several of my best friends who have gotten married in the past years (and several who are now new mommies) and at first I thought our friendship would die out, but now it just looks different. Not worse, but different. It takes more effort and scheduling to get together, but it's always so great when we do. I am able to share my heart and I love hearing about marriage life, poopy diapers, and even breastfeeding (maybe it's the pediatric nurse practitioner in me!) even though I am single. I also love that these friends have a different perspective than me because they are in a different season than I am. And I get to learn a lot from them, whether they are younger or older or whether they are single, married, or somewhere in between. It adds a little flavor to the friendship when we're different.
Elena