Friendships: Handeling Friendships
Friends and maintaining friends sometimes has its ups and downs. But I think what's great about is that you end up learning alot about yourself through these moments. I love this post for it's honestly and that fact that she is able to find so much value and learn alot about her self through her experiences.
I think one of the main keys to friendship is to know what your definition of friendship is. Friendships, along with any relationship between two people, come with a lot (or not a lot) of expectations. If you don’t know where you stand with someone, it’s hard to know what to expect, and when you have the right to be upset about something he/she has done.
I am very blessed in the area of friends for two reasons: 1) I have a twin sister who has literally and figuratively been on my side for my entire life. I am so thankful that God gave me a twin sister who I get along with perfectly. 2) I have quite a few really close friends who I have been ‘collecting’ all my life. I have friends that I have known since I was little, and friends that I have met with in the last few months; having all these friends, however, did not come easily.
When I was about 11 years old, I struggled with one of my biggest insecurities in my life: Loneliness. This is also around the time when I first really ever felt the presence of God in my life. At the time, I was in middle school going to a small Lutheran school in the town of Wheaton, IL. There were about 30 students in my 6th grade class, and for the most part we were all friends. There was this one girl, however, that I had what I call a “friend crush” on. Basically, I wanted to do whatever I could to be not just her friend, but her best friend. She was new to our class, and of course everyone wanted to get to know her.
To make a long story short…we eventually became best friends. We hung out all of the time, and she even invited me and my twin to her youth group that we eventually went to all the way till we graduated from High School. When we were in 8th grade, she had to leave our school for personal reasons. We stayed in touch with her, and we still went to her youth group so we saw her at least twice a week. Because she was going to a different school now, she started having new friends, and we stopped hanging out as often. As a 13 year old, this was extremely difficult for me. I began to feel like I had no friends. She was really my only friend, but she was leaving me for people that she thought were better.
This is the first time in my life that I really turned to God for help. I was struggling with loneliness and cried out to Him for help. This is when I really found out what it means to trust in God with your whole life, and he will make things better. From this experience I realized that there was nothing wrong with me. Not everybody you become friends with will stay your friend for the rest of your life, but that is ok, and it doesn’t mean that you did something wrong.
Because of this time in my life, I believe God has blessed me with more friends than I feel like I can manage sometimes. I thank God everyday for the people He has put in my life, and I know that if it wasn’t for the time in middle school where I felt like I had no one, I wouldn’t appreciate the people in my life the way I do now.
Despite all that happened, we are now really good friends and will most likely stay friends forever. My challenge to you is to make sure you are not taking for granted any of your relationships. Make sure the people you care about the most know that you care about them.
23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”[a] and he was called God’s friend. James 2:23