Tag: friends

A Godly Friend

This week I had two very different encounters with two different people and they both really made me think about how we interact with others and how much it can impact a person.

The first was an encounter with someone I’ve known for years but hadn’t seen in a long time. There was no how are you, how’s life kind of questions. I was holding my granddaughter and the person asked, “who is this?” I replied with who she was. The next question was, “And are you done having kids?”.

If you need a lesson in what to ask a woman you barely have a relationship with, here it is.

I was recounting this story to my husband and our 19 year old son. When I got to that question that was asked of me, my 19 year old right away interjected, “Oh no, you don’t ask a lady that!”

There’s your lesson.

The second encounter was with someone I fairly regularly spend time with. Our conversation surrounded school this upcoming year for a while and I was telling her about a dilemma I have with what to do in our schedule. We have been doing something for years that has been fine and suddenly the schedule is changing and it’s felt like a weight on me all summer. I was telling her this and she replied, “I think you know what God is telling you to do. You just have to obey.” She also reminded me why we home school, why we have our kids at home and aren’t filling our plates with every good thing.

I left one of these encounters feeling interrogated and almost a bit exposed in not a good way. There was prying but not encouragement. There was morbid curiosity but not a genuine desire for friendship.

I left the other encounter with a feeling of a weight having been lifted off, of my eyes having been turned to Jesus, and of a true friend who spoke into my life when I needed to hear it.

Proverbs 27:17 says, Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

Are you a friend who sharpens your friends? Do you turn their eyes to Jesus and his Word? Do you uplift and encourage but also speak the truth in love when your friend needs to hear it?

Being a good friend doesn’t mean patting your friend’s ego and always telling them they are doing a great job. It also doesn’t mean always judging what they are doing. If we are going to be godly friends, we need to be willing to speak the truth so our friends get closer to the Lord and His will for their lives AND we need to be willing to hear the truth from a friend and change our path when needed.

I’m so thankful for godly friends in my life. And, honestly, I’m thankful for those people who don’t encourage or uplift as well because they teach me how not to be a friend to others!

This was the sky this morning on my run. I just kept feeling like the Lord was saying, Good morning, I love you. Then he reminded me of the good, godly friends I have in my life that show me his love everyday.

Thank you, Jesus, for iron friends!

Impromptu Getaway

“I just need a change of scenery, need to do something different,” I stated to a friend.

“Me too,” she replied.

We both were feeling the weight of winter, the doldrums of cold and darkness and more cold. The kids were too cooped up and going stir crazy, making mom go crazy.

She’s the kind of friend I can tell my struggles too and she gets it. She knows I get her too. And what I love about her is when I told her this, she was like, well, let’s go somewhere.

A little while later, we were online finding a VRBO not too far away that would fit our two families. I’ve never pulled off a vacation that quickly. We tend to be planners, not spontaneous,  jump in the car and go kind of people. It was fun just to plan something that fast and have something different to do.

Andrew took a couple days vacation, I canceled everything on the calendar, we threw clothes in bags and ran to the grocery store.

Two days later we were driving through a snow storm! A drive that should have taken 2 1/2 hours, took four through blinding snow and unplowed roads. But we made it.

We found a cabin nestled in the Mississippi River bluffs in the middle of nowhere Iowa. Didn’t really matter where we went, just that we went. But it was beautiful! And it was priceless to be with family and friends!

We did nothing and it was glorious! We ate, played games, watched movies, and stayed inside by the fire for two days. Going on vacation can be stressful, going with other families can be a lot to navigate, but not with these people. We get each other. We’re comfortable just sitting together or doing our own thing. And, very importantly, our kids love each other. They played together the entire time without fights or issue and loved every minute together.

We had some amazing laughs too, playing charades. Laughing with friends is such good medicine!

When we were leaving, her daughter said to mine, “I don’t want to leave this place. And even more, I don’t want to leave you.”

I felt the same way.

Everyone needs people to do life with. This life isn’t easy. We need people who get us, who love us, who see our need and take action. We need people who will tell us the truth and hold us accountable. We need people who will walk alongside us in trouble and in joy.

If you don’t have people like that in your life, be those people to someone else. Pray God gives you those people and pray he shows you who he wants you to come alongside. You’ll never regret it!