Friends

I had a call from an old friend yesterday. She called to say that she had been reading my blog and just wanted to catch up. She referenced my post of "Catch and Release." She said she didn't want to be a catch and release kind of friend. I assured her that she wasn't.

In fact, she is one of those friends that you have for a lifetime. One of those friends that you may spend a season of life very close to and then you may have a season when you aren't so close. The season doesn't make your friendship any more or less. In fact I have come to cherish those friendships a great deal, a friend that is your friend over the years. One that you have history with...good and bad. A friend that has been in your life long enough to see a lot of your flaws and loves you anyway.

I am very grateful to have been blessed with a handful of these friends. Friends who have known me as a girl, a teenager, a college student, a young adult, a young married woman, a new mother and now an old mother. No matter what stage of my life they have come into my life, they've gotten to see the good, the bad, and the ugly and most importantly they have remained my friend.

I've also been blessed with other types of friends. Friends that come and go out of my life. Maybe physical distances or circumstances in life cause the friendship not to last so long. They are also important to my life. They have added value to my time on earth and certainly taught me lessons about myself, others and God.

There are also the new friends that I make on a regular basis. Friends that I've just known a few years, months, weeks or even days. These I also consider gifts from God. In my study of John, I am reminded that all things are created by God for God. If we are to believe this, then all people with all of their differences and all relationships work together to bring God glory.

Robin Norwood says, "We need to be able to relinquish our beliefs about what "should" be and become willing to accept and appreciate what simply is." Maybe that should be our take on friendship. There is no real definition of what a friend "should" be. We should accept them and appreciate them for what they are...gifts from God!