If You Have a Friend for Life, Don't Let Anything Pull You Apart

Friendship is a weird thing. It's a commitment that ebbs and flows depending on the season of life we are in. Sometimes cultivating the friendship is convenient. Sometimes it is not.

Sometimes talking on the phone for hours on end about absolutely nothing and everything at the same time is doable. Sometimes it is not.

Sometimes weekly book clubs and Bible studies are inspiring and necessary. Sometimes they're not.

Sometimes spontaneous overnight trips to the city to read and write silently in the same room is refreshing. Sometimes it's just too much work to get there in the first place.

Sometimes friendships are circumstantial, and sometimes, they're not.  (Click to Tweet)

High school, college, marriage, motherhood are the seasons that my friendships have filtered through so far. Some stuck and some didn't. Some were pivotal in their designated season and others have become more so as time moves on.

But regardless, I'm learning my friends are a necessary, not optional, necessary part of my existence.

I need her to push me when I'm lazily meandering through life. I need her to pick me up off the bathroom floor when my burdens are weighing me down. I need her to belly laugh at the totally inappropriate memes I find on Pinterest. I need her to cry tears of sorrow when I lose, and tears of gladness when I've been given. Specifically life.

I need her and she needs me. Otherwise, we might not make it sane in this world.  (Click to Tweet)

She needs you and you need her. Otherwise, you might not make it either.

So, if you have a friend who is turning out to be one of those lifetime friends, don't let anything, nothing, pull that apart. (Click to Tweet) 

Fight for your friendships because it'll be worth it when you're grey haired and reminiscing, "Remember that one time..."

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Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work:  If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity. – Khalil Gibran

Better is open rebuke than hidden love.  Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses. Proverbs 27:5-6

Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together. – Woodrow T. Wilson

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Proverbs 27:17

True friendship is when you walk into their house and your WiFi connects automatically.

We Need Love

This weekend I am headed up the California mountain range with a Venti Caramel Macchiato and some of my favorite women in the whole world. Last year we began a tradition of "retreating for some dreaming" before our annual girls conference. It was such a spring board for the most successful year we've had yet, that we decided to do it again, with more intentionality and purpose.

This year we asked ourselves, When a group of girls and women, set out to change their corner of the world, what do we need to be equipped with above all?

Love.

Why? You might ask.

Because love is patient and love is kind. It does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 

Because love bears all things, believes all things, hopes and endures all things.

We all have a gripping desire to feel loved, valued, and seen. Sure, there is time for discipline and consequences of actions taken, but at the end of the day, we all need to love one another and be loved by one another for this world to shift in the slightest.

Because above all, that's what our world needs and because it never ends.

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Will you pray for my staff this weekend? As we seek and study in preparation for this year's conference? (For those of you who've responded on FB already, thank you, thank you, thank you!)

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Do you know a High school or Middle school girl that is searching for a place to ask questions and experience God? Try out Becoming Girls Conference and see if it's a good fit.

Worshipping with Baby Mo, On Stage!

Worshipped with my childhood church this morning and Baby Girl Mo tagged along for rehearsal.

I shed many tears of sorrow, longing and heart ache on this stage, never thinking this moment would become a reality.

It's a little surreal she's here. May my passion for singing to Him never waver despite my circumstances. ♥

Thank you @emtingley for capturing this moment!