Friendships

Got to spend the weekend with one of my favorite people.  My friend Elaine came over from St Louis to speak at a ladies retreat for Redemption Church.  Talk about a circle of life.  Elaine comes to speak at a retreat on friendships, and our friendship really developed over serving together at retreats.

She and I spent hours together cooking for youth retreats, ladies retreats, and children's retreats.  Which also meant that we spent many wee hours of the morning awake talking.  Opening up becomes easier in the dark of the night.  A friendship of trust, honesty, and acceptance came out of those many hours of service together.

It was so much fun to share my friend from St Louis with my friends in Southern Illinois.  It was neat to see the threads of relationships just in the women at this retreat.  Some were not members of our church just came with friends at our church.  There were women who had been long time childhood friends.  There were women who were friends because they were related, aunts and nieces, sister-in-laws, mothers and daughters, mother and daughter in-laws.  Friends for many years, friends for only a few years.  There were old friends and new friends.  I hope there were new friendships that began too.

Elaine made a comment to me at one point about how God knits our lives together and how if just one of those people are missing the quilt of our life can begin to unravel.  Missing out on one friendship changes the tapestry of our lives.

Friendships change us or they should anyway.  They should challenge us, they should stretch us, they should sharpen us.  They should make us better people by being around them.  If they are good friendships they should draw us to the Father.  Elaine is that kind of friend and I am thankful God knit  her in my life.

Proverbs 27:9 "The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense."