Friends For …

Friends For …

“Some people come in our life as blessings. Others come in our life as lessons.”

Mother Theresa

1. There are those in our lives, both past and present, that we can’t imagine life without.  We can attribute a part of who we are today to what they poured into our lives.  Others, unfortunately, will not leave cozy feelings.  Worse yet, there will be those who will do nothing but teach you how NOT to live your life and treat people.
2. Even people you don’t know can fit into these two classes.  When I made the decision to live my life in Christ I was at an Amy Grant concert.  I was baptized the next day in my church.  I had grown up in the Methodist church, so I had been baptized as a baby, but I felt I should make the choice on my own as well. So, Amy Grant will always be tied to the biggest decision of my life.  On the other hand, Chris Farley holds a place in my mind that when I see his picture or him on a show, I know I want nothing to do with whatever it is.  I found him to be very rude, crude and immature in everything I saw him in and I didn’t want to have his characters in my head.  He may have been a very nice guy, but I just don’t have good thoughts when I see him.
3. Along with the above quote, Ziad K. Abdelnour says, “We have three types of friends in life: Friends for a reason, friends for a season and friends for a lifetime.”  Sometimes people walk beside you as a business partner, they are family or they are there as an answered prayer.  They are there for a reason.  Those there for a season are friends who walk beside you during rough times, injury, job loss and so on.  They are there to help you through a time of your life and then they step out for any number of reasons.  Then there are our forever friends. These are people you will know, love and be a part of each others’ lives until the day you die and beyond.  One of my friends and I often say we will be sitting in our rockers when we are old, staring at the ocean while enjoying a drink together.  Another has passed beyond friendship into being like my sister.  And the list goes on of the friends in my life who will be my friends forever.
4. I have also heard, and now fully understand, there are personal friends and couple friends.  One of my friends from college and for years after was someone I thought was my friend even though we did many, many things as couples.  However, a month after the one I loved died, we met for lunch.  We ate and talked for a good bit of time.  At the end, she told me that she planned to be down once a month where we could meet during that time and talk.  However, I actually never saw her again and there has been hardly any interaction since then.  Evidently, she was a couple friend and there for a season.
5. On the other hand, one of my other college friends has been by my side since the one I loved died.  We have talked and met just she and I as well as gotten together as families.  A lot of our friendship was spent doing things as couples and with our families, but when it came down to  it, she was and is also my personal friend.  We still get together as families as well.  Her friendship means the world to me and we’ll be friends for a lifetime.
6. When I get together with one of my friends for lunch this week, we discussed why everyone couldn’t just be friends forever.  I don’t know the answer to this, but I know a few people who were friends that I am relieved no longer hold that title.  I also know that some of my friends have moved on to different places in their lives, new experiences and roles that have taken them away to bigger and better things.  We are just in different places to a point that staying close wasn’t possible.
7. It doesn’t matter what type of friendships you’re in or even how many friendships you have.  The only things that matters, in the end, is that you are the best friend you can be to all of them.

~ Joanna Lynn