A Woman's Best Friend

This morning while dressing after my shower a funny little thought flitted across my mind.

You see, my best friend has been so busy with things in her own life that we haven't talked much. This is perfectly excusable for the most part. She is a busy sales executive, smack dab in the middle of her busiest season. She is blessed with 3 boys of her own, plus just found out that she has a step son (yes, these things do happen in real life) and is trying to navigate the murky waters that all of this entails. Personally, I think she is doing a fantastic job. Not only is she very involved in her sons lives, she volunteers a good deal of time in her community. She sits on various booster club boards, does the class mom thing and is overall maxed to her limit. She puts dinner on the table and prepares her family for extended business trips out of town. She really has got to be one of the most unselfish women I know. Is there any question why I love her so? Even though she is incredibly busy, she is willing to juggle it around if I need her at a moments notice. Did I mention she lives 4.5 hours away from me in another state? We see each other in "real" life about twice in a year period. This is the friend that hold me spiritually, morally and emotionally accountable. There is nothing off limits to converse about and we both can be completely undone, flawed and in the wrong. We expect each other to call out the others' sin, work through a solution and follow-up to see if we did what we said we were going to. When we greet each other on the phone we use only one word. Depending on the tone of the word, we know exactly who will be dominating the conversation. When my phone rings, and I hear the word... "Friend"... everything else gets ignored and I step into my friends life for a few minutes. No time or distance separates our hearts.

Let me introduce you to my other best friend. Right now, she is out of town for 5 very long days. Long for me, short for her. For the first time ever, she has left her 3 children at home with her husband so that she can attend a big fireworks convention of some sort. Her parting remarks were something along the lines of " I feel like I am going on spring break, only I don't plan to get naked or drunk". This is why I love her so much. This friend is a stay-at-home mom who is willing to get up and go to the gym with me at 6:30 every morning. Her daughter and my daughter are best friends. Her husband and my husband hang out. She is a mom of excellence and is faithful to her high school sweetheart. This is the friend that I can call on a moments notice and see if she wants to run off with me to do things. I trust her completely with my children. We spend hours and hours each week watching our girls play competitive soccer. We craft together. She is my other set of hands when I am overwhelmed. She is the friend who came to my house and washed my dirty clothes and carted my children around from event to event when Nick was in the hospital.

Let me introduce you to my other best friend. Oh wait, what do you mean you have 3 best friends? Actually, I have 4! Yes, this is very possible. I am a very blessed woman. My other best friend works at a college and travels the nation to judge coffee competitions. She loves coffee. Breathes coffee. Teaches coffee. Now if I stopped right here and didn't say another word about her, you all would KNOW why she is one of my best friends. COFFEE! But actually, our relationship goes much deeper than that. You see, this friend brought me to the Lord, mentored and learned along side me... and even stood next to me that Easter day, dripping wet, with tears pouring out her eyes as I accepted and dedicated my life to the Lord. She is the friend who understands who I used to be, and can see who I have become. She has been my shield too many times to count. She is never critical or judgmental. Now that she has an empty nest, she fills my heart with laughter as she takes on new things that she was never able to do when her son was at home. She is an inspiration to me at all times. She is honest and real.

Lastly, but not least by any means is my other best friend. This friend used to live next door. If we were not with each other in person then we were on our front porches talking on the phone. When we first became friends, our babies were only a few months old. We had older kids the same age. She loved Jesus. She is now a pastor's wife and lives 7 hours away. She is the friend who always is encouraging and laughing at something. She is fun and playful. She is beautiful in spirit and body. She ministers to me by asking me questions... always asking questions. She never gives me an unwanted opinion. Just asks me questions that make me think outside of the box. This is the friend who sends me random gifts in the mail, a gift card to get something for myself, or sends a  book she loved. This is the friend that I can walk into a card store with, go through and find a stack of cards we think is hilarious, swap them with each other and laugh until we almost pee our pants. Never do we have to buy the cards, just search and swap. This is the friend that opened up her home to give my son some much needed spiritual counseling for several months. Her name is the same as mine and my kids call her mom.

Now that I have introduced you to my best friends, let me share a story about two of them meeting. This would be best friend #2 and #3. One day I invited the 2 of them to go walking at a local park. I figured that the two of them would really get along well. Both are love God. Both have claws! Seriously. So friend #2 introduces herself to friend #3. "Hi~ I'm Suzie, Jenn's best friend".... "Hi~ I'm Sandy, Jenn's best friend. I have known her longer and I was here first"... Girls will be girls. We all mark our territory. We laughed quite a bit during that walk and have gotten together several times since then with no issues. While there were many more talks about friendship and sharing with each other, my girlfriends accepted each other because of their love for me.

Where does friend #1 come into play in this story? Later that day she called to see how the day went. I recounted the story in a great bit more of detail, and she just laughed. Even though she can't be here with us to take that walk, she confidently proclaimed " Yeah, we all know that I am your best friend"...

God gives each of us a friend for a season of life that we go through. Just because we have grown past that season, it doesn't mean that we have to out grow that friendship.

God gives us each a special someone in our lives. Some of us are blessed to be able to keep them for a lifetime and others for just a short period of time. Treasure each of these friendships while you can. I know I am forever thankful to the Lord that he has trusted me with so many beautiful women. Each one filling a need of friendship that my heart has always yearned for.