Friend of God

As God often does, He answered my prayers in a way I never expected. He began to open my eyes to see things from the other point of view. Friend after friend revealed her own frustrations and struggles, and I realized we all had the same problems and the same desires.

One night, I was reading from John and Stasi Eldredge’s book Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman’s Soul (Nelson Books). Stasi happened to touch upon the very issue I was dealing with: “Friendships need to be nurtured and guarded and fought for. We need to call one another without waiting to be called first. We need to ask how our friends are doing and really listen to their answers … we love our friends by pursuing them.”

This brought to mind a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson: “The only way to have a friend is to be one,” and I realized that there was only one thing in this situation that I could absolutely control: me. My griping and complaining had accomplished absolutely nothing, except to possibly make me an irritating person to be around. So instead of focusing on why my friends were letting me down, I decided to learn how to be a good friend myself.

From: The Fight for Friendship by Kristin Markham