Amazing Fellowship

I am blessed to have a wonderful group of women friends....this top photo is only a small portion from my Tuesday night Bible Study group.  We are women of different ages, different denominations, different marital status', and different personalities, and yet we all fit!

I am also blessed with another group of friends, which come from other sources....be it parents I met while my son was playing a sport or in a club, or women I met from working with them.  I am blessed BEYOND BEYOND in the realm of women friends.   I wish I could post a photo of every one of them....but surely some will threaten my life if I posted photos without their permission.  I'm already walking a line with the one at the top...because we women can be so picky about these things.  Ha!  (I only know because I spent a whole day after my wedding crying over photos that people had posted to Facebook which I thought looked terrible and I was pretty sure I just wanted to die....yes vain...yes terribly ridiculous...and yes....true.  So Sad really!)

Ok, back on track.....I have been feeling the loss of my fellowship of friends since having surgery.  I haven't been attending church, going to Bible Study, or even being in the same sort of regular contact that I normally am with my friends.  I miss them....AND....I miss the way God uses us to lift up and inspire, encourage and admonish, love and support one another!

I had a friend call me this last week.  She knew that my throat was hurting since surgery, so she called and said right after my 'Hello'...."I know your throat hurts, don't say anything...I just want to pray for you!"  How awesome is that right!?!?  This friend is battling heart wrenching trials of her own, but this is how I believe God designed us, especially as women....to minister to each other in a way that we understand.  The way that a man might call touchy feely.

I had another friend who took me out, as I was not ready to drive yet, to shop for a Birthday gift for my husband....I had been having some rough days....and as we stood in the card isle we laughed so hard that I was crying and was seriously beginning to worry that I might wet my pants....she was bringing me the funniest cards.  They didn't pertain to my husband's Birthday, but they were funny and we both needed a good laugh!  We felt like it was good medicine!  I felt like a school girl laughing with my best friend over something secretly funny to only us....and truth be told, if I were to show you the cards we laughed so hard at the other day....they might not even seem funny now.  But in that moment they sure did, and I think that God knew that we both needed a good laugh!

I have been blessed with phone calls and messages from Alaska, to Canada, Hawaii, and local friends lifting me in prayer and offering words of encouragement.  

Though I have walked through many trials, God has been FAITHFUL to bring along those to encourage me in my journey.  

Friendship is a blessing, and tough times show you just who your true friends are....the ones to walk through thick and thin....who show up when life gets ugly and standing beside you isn't like a trip to Disneyland.  I believe that God teaches me how to be a better friend myself by the examples of friendship around me. 

I think the old saying is true, 'if you want to find a good friend, you must first learn to BE a good friend.'  I'm not sure who said that or where it came from, but I believe it to be true.

Who might you be able to encourage today?  I'm inspired to bless someone....how about you?

THANK YOU TO MY FRIENDS WHO CONTINUE TO FAITHFULLY STAND BESIDE ME AND LIFT ME IN PRAYER! 

I would love to hear your ideas of how to bless and encourage others.  We might just spark a movement of blessing...sort of like doing the 'wave' at a baseball game.  (do they still even do that?)

May God bless YOU with a friend that is handpicked by God to be a great blessing and encouragement!