Friends. We Need Them. Period.

I was just discussing friendship this week.  In every place that I have lived I have had a couple of close, truly special friends.  In college, I lived with my closest girlfriends we ate meals together, did laundry together, went to bed talking about life every night.  There seemed to be lots of time for friendships.  It wasn't that hard to make them a priority.

Moving along in life.  Newly married living in a different state without family close by Ben and I made some incredible friendships.  The greatest thing turned out to be that our husbands were just a close as the girls were.  We spent every weekend night at someones house, eating out, training for marathons.

Fast forward to now.  True friendships are a lot harder to develop.  We now have kids and a mortgage payment.  Much less time to devote to developing true meaningful relationships.  It's hard enough to manage our households let alone add in nurturing friendships onto the to do list.  By the grace of God we have managed to create some fabulous friendships.

The first year Ben and I lived in Florida one of my main prayers to God was that He would enable me to find some true friendships.  Girls I could relate to and love.  Boy did He deliver.

I never realized how important my friendships were until crisis struck my life.  When Caroline got sick all of my different "eras" of friends showed up in my time of need.  Yes,  some drove for miles just to sit in the ICU waiting room and be my support. Others showed up through text messages.  One friend sent me scripture every morning.  My friends mailed cards, gave hugs, made meals, sent gifts and did so much work behind the scenes that people would never see, just to help me. Above everything our friends prayed for our family.  Priceless.

Let me tell you something. Friends. Should. Never. Be. Abandoned. If your ship needs to drop weight, throw the clothes overboard. Chuck your cell phone, get rid of necessary food. But friends? They are the life raft on the ship. The one with the big yellow sticker that says "Do Not Tamper." And, God forbid, if your ship ever goes down...you need them.
Out of the gazillion blessings of our life,  is my deepened recognition of the value of friends. Those pretty orange life rafts that served as decoration, fun, company--well, when the ship is in jeopardy, guess what? They inflate, just like they promise. They hold you up and take you to dry land, and if you've ever experienced it, you know never ever to take a friend for granted again.
-Kelle Hampton

I did not write the precious paragraph above.  But I couldn't identify with it anymore if I had written it myself.  My life rafts came, they inflated and took me to dry land.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

So make time for your friends.  Go work out together, plan a couples date night,  take time for a coffee date (you drink coffee every morning anyways... this week do it with a friend) or just call them to tell them you love them.  It's important.