Friendship
I don't know why, by for the past few days the topic of friendship has constantly been on my mind. I will be busy doing tasks throughout the day only to find I am again thinking about friends I have had - past and present. I've never been one of those people who has a lot of friends. While most people have hundreds of 'friends' even on Facebook, I have less than 100. My best friend is the type of person that has a lot of friends, I knew that from the first day we met. At her wedding, she had 5 bridesmaids and a maid of honor. When they were planning the wedding, she told her fiance that he had a year to go out and make a bunch of new friends so he would have enough groomsmen for all her attendants! I've often joked to people that if I ever get married, I hope my husband-to-be has sisters because I can only name one or two people I would want to stand up with me at my wedding.
As I've thought back over past friendships recently, I've come to a conclusion. Whether it be my type of personality or God's leading, or a mixture or both, I notice that I only seem to have one 'good' friend at a time that I feel comfortable sharing my heart with. Thinking back to my college days, I often hung out with a large group of people, but only confided in one of them. A girl named Heather, from Colorado, was who I spent a lot of time with and was the first one I went to when I needed guidance or counsel of any type.
In the summer of 2002, I did a summer of mission work at Hillcrest Baptist Church here in Riverton. I met an amazing girl from Texas at the beginning of that summer named Cassey and within a couple of weeks, she and I were spending every waking moment together that we could. That was the summer I faced my grandfather in court for the abuse he perpetrated on me when I was a child and I remember that this friend was so incredibly supportive during that time. She even called me to find out how the trial went though she was away at camp for the week. We spent many nights together talking until wee hours of the morning and laughed until we almost peed our pants on more than one occasion. I had never had a friend like her before and when our time together came to an end at the beginning of August, I cried like a baby when we said goodbye to each other at the hotel early that morning. We had planned on working together again the next summer, but circumstances led both of us on completely different adventures than we had planned. Still, I will always remember our time together and treasure her love and support that summer for as long as I live.
The next summer found me doing mission work again, this time on the big island of Hawaii with a red-headed girl from Arkansas I had never met before. We were going to spend 10 weeks together working in different town with different churches and again, within days of meeting each other, we were instant friends. A lot happened that summer on the mission field and in each of our personal lives that only brought us closer together - the death of my step-dad, health issues with a close friend of hers, a supervisor who was constantly criticising our work there and telling us we weren't measuring up, among other things. We were also in a new town and new church every week or so and when we didn't know anyone else, we always had each other. One of my favorite memories of that summer is one night sleeping at a pastor's house. We were both laying on our backs in the bed and I said, "Um, Amy? Are you on the very edge over there on your side?" She answered, "Yes, are you?" as we lay there with our shoulders pressing up against each other!
Amy and I spent the next summer doing mission work again, working in orphanages in India. Again, being foreigners to a new country where we didn't know the culture, the language, or anyone else, we had each other. That summer in India was life-changing on many levels for me and Amy was a big part of that. Amy and I have remained friends since then and have tried to see each other at least once a year. She will be a forever friend.
After I graduated from college and entered the 'real world' as an adult on my own, most of my friendships were with women who were already married with children because single women my age seemed to be few and far between. The fact that they had families of their own changed things a lot, but it still seemed that friends would come and go from my life, one at a time. Some of these friends have been from church, some from the school where I work, and others were acquaintances that became great friends.
All this is to say that I will forever thank God for the friends He has brought in and out of my life. There have been friendships that ended rather abruptly, for reasons that I either never understood or hurt considerably, but I truly understand the saying, "Some friends come and go like a season. Others are arranged in our lives for good reason." I remember - with fondness and lessons learned - the friendships from yesterday, try to hold on to today's friendships for as long as God allows, and will be interested to see what friends God brings tomorrow.
As I've thought back over past friendships recently, I've come to a conclusion. Whether it be my type of personality or God's leading, or a mixture or both, I notice that I only seem to have one 'good' friend at a time that I feel comfortable sharing my heart with. Thinking back to my college days, I often hung out with a large group of people, but only confided in one of them. A girl named Heather, from Colorado, was who I spent a lot of time with and was the first one I went to when I needed guidance or counsel of any type.
In the summer of 2002, I did a summer of mission work at Hillcrest Baptist Church here in Riverton. I met an amazing girl from Texas at the beginning of that summer named Cassey and within a couple of weeks, she and I were spending every waking moment together that we could. That was the summer I faced my grandfather in court for the abuse he perpetrated on me when I was a child and I remember that this friend was so incredibly supportive during that time. She even called me to find out how the trial went though she was away at camp for the week. We spent many nights together talking until wee hours of the morning and laughed until we almost peed our pants on more than one occasion. I had never had a friend like her before and when our time together came to an end at the beginning of August, I cried like a baby when we said goodbye to each other at the hotel early that morning. We had planned on working together again the next summer, but circumstances led both of us on completely different adventures than we had planned. Still, I will always remember our time together and treasure her love and support that summer for as long as I live.
The next summer found me doing mission work again, this time on the big island of Hawaii with a red-headed girl from Arkansas I had never met before. We were going to spend 10 weeks together working in different town with different churches and again, within days of meeting each other, we were instant friends. A lot happened that summer on the mission field and in each of our personal lives that only brought us closer together - the death of my step-dad, health issues with a close friend of hers, a supervisor who was constantly criticising our work there and telling us we weren't measuring up, among other things. We were also in a new town and new church every week or so and when we didn't know anyone else, we always had each other. One of my favorite memories of that summer is one night sleeping at a pastor's house. We were both laying on our backs in the bed and I said, "Um, Amy? Are you on the very edge over there on your side?" She answered, "Yes, are you?" as we lay there with our shoulders pressing up against each other!
Amy and I spent the next summer doing mission work again, working in orphanages in India. Again, being foreigners to a new country where we didn't know the culture, the language, or anyone else, we had each other. That summer in India was life-changing on many levels for me and Amy was a big part of that. Amy and I have remained friends since then and have tried to see each other at least once a year. She will be a forever friend.
After I graduated from college and entered the 'real world' as an adult on my own, most of my friendships were with women who were already married with children because single women my age seemed to be few and far between. The fact that they had families of their own changed things a lot, but it still seemed that friends would come and go from my life, one at a time. Some of these friends have been from church, some from the school where I work, and others were acquaintances that became great friends.
All this is to say that I will forever thank God for the friends He has brought in and out of my life. There have been friendships that ended rather abruptly, for reasons that I either never understood or hurt considerably, but I truly understand the saying, "Some friends come and go like a season. Others are arranged in our lives for good reason." I remember - with fondness and lessons learned - the friendships from yesterday, try to hold on to today's friendships for as long as God allows, and will be interested to see what friends God brings tomorrow.
Angie I know I hurt you but I love you and we will mend this
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