Girlfriends.

What would we do without them?

Before I was married, I would sit with my closest girlfriends and talk endlessly about our dreams… our thoughts of the future.  What would our husbands be like, how many kids would we have, where would our careers go…?

Girlfriends are the place we can talk about our wildest dreams, our deepest insecurities, our darkest fears, our mortifying moments, our ugliest secrets… real girlfriends.  We count ourselves blessed to have one good one in this life.  Girlfriends… they are the joy-sharers, hug-givers, laugh-til-you-cry partners… they pick you up when your legs buckle beneath you.

They are the place our heavy hearts… our weary minds… our tired spirits ~ can be washed clean… with laughter and tears.

I used to think, before I was married, that as soon as my wonderful husband whisked me away to the beautiful life of wife and mama… my girlfriends would be a need in the rearview mirror.  I would love them no less… just that I would need them no more.  I don’t know why I dismissed the importance of these very friendships that fill a special place that only other women can fill in the heart of a woman.

I didn’t grow up with sisters.  God, infinitely wise and giving, gave me four daughters instead.  In my younger years, my girlfriends were my sisters.

Only as I get older do I understand and appreciate what that means.

I see now.  

Of course, life as a wife to my warrior and mama to my six pack is beyond blessing…

The thing is ~ it is the blessing of these sisters that keeps me sane.

Those times when my last nerve is a bungee cord for my little ones… when no girlfriend can be found to smother the burning temper inside… I have muttered to my husband…

You’re going to have to be my girlfriend for a minute

Eyes wide, his brow breaks a sweat

oh no

He has grown to appreciate the gift of mama’s girlfriends… almost as much as I have.

The voice of a dear sister on the line

can you have a glass of wine tonight?

This wise husband of hers placed the phone in her hand…

call her

(I am pretty sure he was praying that his wife’s girlfriend would jump at the chance…)

We need each other.  Our men know this.

The times when I was solitary… a new person, in a new place, with new babies… these were the times I realized what these sisters really mean.

When I opened my eyes to God, when I realized His love, when I finally began to pay attention… that’s when I prayed.  I prayed for sisters.  God-given girlfriends.  These kindred sister souls… bearing the burdens, sharing this walk, keeping it real… offering wine and chocolate, just when we need it the most.

A prayer for my daughters… and my sons (because they need these kindred souls ~ just as much)…

a prayer for one good friend in this life (or a good handful) whose focus points up…

 

1 John 4:11

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.