A True Friend

As I reminisce over the past summer, among the many memories and blessed canvassing experiences, one thing sticks out in my mind; and that is friendship.  The friends made and the friendships strengthened brought joy to the summer amidst the difficulties that came up.  

There are some friends who you just enjoy doing certain things with, there are other friends who come into your life and then they go out, there are some friends who you can have in a certain environment-like school etc. and then when that’s over you no longer keep in touch, and there are some friends who you can share certain things in your life with but not everything….but then there are those special friends who are your sisters at heart, and you know that however many miles you are apart, they will always be close at heart and the next time you meet them again you will just be able to pick up where you last left off.  I was blessed with just a sister and best friend this summer.

As I travel down memory lane these are the fun times I remember most vividly spending with my dear friend Jennita…..

There was our secret hide out behind the gym where we talked and shared together for hours on our day off where no one knew where we were at.  Eating soy ice cream together and listening to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons playing on the CD in the car.  Shopping together for shoes…searching for the largest thrift store….shopping at Goodwill and Salvation Army together and switching clothes over top of the fitting rooms: “Here this is too small for me maybe it will look pretty on you”, “Okay, this is too big for me you try it” “Alright I’ll try it on then.”  Cooking breakfast together in the kitchen and talking over menu ides, combining our two recipes together to make one tasty dish.  Texting each other every day at lunch break when we were not in the same canvassing van.  Exchanging prayer requests and joys and struggles we were facing.  Praying for book goals and seeing God answering prayers and working miracles.  Laughing together...crying together…singing together…Eating together....Going on long walks together out in nature and talking together while we were at it.  Enjoying the simple joys of life together…setting by a creek, swinging on a swing, watching a crawl dad or a Preying mantis or a snake, climbing a tree and setting up in it together, watching fireworks, laying in the grass, smelling the roses….everything in life is sweeter when you have a friend there with you!

                                                              Just having fun together....

                                                                       The crawl dad

                                                                          The snake

                                                                 More kitchen work...

So what is a true friend?  It is someone who will be there for you in good times and bad times.  Someone who will not only have fun with you but will laugh with you and cry with you too.  Someone who brings out the good in you, who brings out the side of you you didn’t know, existed.  Someone whose joyfulness and contentment is contagious to you.  Someone who you can be honest with, someone you may get annoyed with at times but when you tell them that they will quickly forgive you.  Someone who loves you for who you are and lets you be yourself around them.  Someone who understands where you’re coming from when you tell them about your past, someone who has had similar experiences as you and knows what you mean; someone who you don’t have to explain yourself to them twice, someone who hears what you aren’t saying with words.  Someone who notices when you are having a bad day without you even looking at them, someone who knows the tears you have shed even if they didn’t see you crying they just know you were.  Someone who will sacrifice their own time to spend talking with you just when you need them most-whatever times of day it may be.  Someone who is not afraid to point out your weaknesses, someone who can give you good advice and counsel that is backed up by the Bible.  Someone who believes in you and encourages you on even when you are ready to give up.  Someone who asks your opinion and values what you think.  Someone who lets you make your own decisions and values what you think about a situation.  Someone who does not make you feel below them or in any way inferior to them.  Someone who is not afraid to open up to you and share their life and their lives stories with you.  Someone who shares their testimony of how God has worked in their life with you, someone to point you back in the right direction when you have lost your way, someone who leads you to Jesus and shows you Jesus by their own example!  

                                          Best Friends!

“Things will go wrong with every one; sadness and discouragement press every soul; then a personal presence, a friend who will comfort and impart strength,

will turn back the darts of the enemy that are aimed to destroy. 

Christian friends are not half as plentiful as they should be.

In hours of temptation, in a crisis, what a value is a true friend! 

Satan at such times sends along his agents to cause the trembling limbs to stumble; but the true friends who will counsel, who will impart magnetic hopefulness, the calming faith that uplifts the soul,

—oh, such help is worth more than precious pearls.” 

-E.G. White