Your tribe is your vibe part 2

     Let me tell you about my best friend. Well, another best friend. I met this woman when I was in my 30s. We had been in Florida for about a year, and I was chaperoning one of my son's kindergarten field trips. Her son was in my son's class, and she just started chatting with me. I'll be honest, I wasn't really looking to make friends at the time. I know that sounds terrible, but my focus at that time was just enjoying my son because I had been working so much. I chatted with her because I wanted to be polite. At some point she kind of just announced that we were going to be best friends, and in my head I thought "Yea, ok."

    A few weeks later she invited me over for coffee, and fast forward 13 years later and here we are- best friends! She and I just started getting together fairly regularly- she was a stay at home mom, so she invited me over pretty much any day that I was off. We just started sharing our stories- husbands, kids, etc. She's about 10 years older than I am, but we hit it off pretty quickly. She has this larger than life personality, but was just so welcoming and made me feel safe and comfortable without taking me over. 

    We started sharing our faith with each other after a few months, which slowly lead to Bible studies, and "God talk' becoming a part of our regular conversations. We always asked how we could pray for each other or our families. Sometimes we would just randomly join hands across the table and start praying. We saw each other laugh, cry, scream, and yell.

    I remember going over there one day and just being off. I don't remember the reason I just know I was going through something. At one point, I even said to her that I was going to go because I knew that I wasn't very good company. And she told me know. Obviously this puzzled me a little bit, and she told me that she was not going to let me go home and be alone and be sad and depressed. She said that we were going to pray about it- which is exactly what we did. She saw that isolating myself was probably the most counterproductive thing I could do- I needed to be around another believer who could speak scripture over me.

    She is a person in my life who just feels like home to me. I could go to her house, any time of the day, in my pjs or my Sunday best, and let my guard down. I could be completely, authentically me. No judgement. No lectures. Just love. A sense of belonging that I didn't always feel with other people.

    As time has gone on, we get together a little bit less. My work schedule has changed, she works outside of the home now, and she moved, not far away, thankfully. However, when we do get to see each other, those moments are so special and cherished. She's still home. We still pray for each other. We share God's glory and provision in our lives. And, we thank God for ourfriendship

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