We get by with a little help from our FRIENDS

Since this blog is all about the adventures of best friends, it's time we paid a little tribute to the all important topic: friendship. It's just a little thing but without an understanding, your life is going to be empty. I've thought a lot lately about how friendships change and evolve over the years.

You start out making friends very early in life, usually based on who your parents put in your path. In childhood we witness friendship in small acts like loaning a pencil, homework help, (Mandy, I still haven't forgiven you... ;-) sharing popsicles, building lemonade stands, and teaching each other how to do flips on the trampoline. Friendship meant helping you hide or come up with a good story when your parents used your (drumroll...) MIDDLE name! It was witnessed through the matching scooters that were revealed on Christmas morning or having someone to play with at recess everyday. Growing up I had no idea that these small, seemingly inconsequential occurrences and every day events were planting the seeds of what friendship means in LIFE.  

Marcie and Mandy, all innocent. 

During those teenage years friendship was a double-edged sword. We learned who our friends were and battled those "mean girl" demons. Prom dress shopping, crushes, notes written and passed at school, and joyriding in cars with no particular destination were all portraits of friendships in progress. Those friends were the ones who offered (behind giggles) to push the wheelchair at graduation because you broke your ankle the day before commencement, the ones who cheered the loudest when the college acceptance letters arrived and cried the longest on the day we actually had leave the nest. It was during this time of our lives that most of us learned that friends have to grow separately but can do so without actually growing apart.

Ah... then comes adulthood. LIFE. All of a sudden the stakes got bigger, the mistakes have scarier consequences, and friends became even more important than just a partner to share popcorn with at the movies. Now friendship looks like driving across the state (or the country) to help you move or just help you find your way. It means sharing the tears, the heartbreaks, the lost jobs, the missed opportunities, the closed doors, and the days when life just isn't terribly kind. On the flip side, it also means being there for marriages and childbirths, road trips without having to ask permission, and having someone to share all the awesome moments that happen to us every day in these grown-up lives of ours. You begin to realize that somewhere along this journey of scooters, lemonade stands, joyriding, and miles traveled we learned how to BE friends... how to just listen, give support, and offer help when warranted. Now "friends" are the ones who can explain escrow accounts, know why insurance is important, will meet you for dinner and sanity walks on a moment's notice, can be listed as emergency contacts, pray for you all the time, and will choose your MIDDLE name to inspire the names of their children.

However, it's very important to remember that even in these grown-up friendships we still like to share popsicles and are even better life cheerleaders. We still love turning flips on trampolines and nearly suffocating in deflating bouncy houses, and it's still more fun to have someone to swing with on the playground! 

M, M, & M starring in The Bouncy House Disaster

SWINGING!

Hanging out in treehouses

"Livin' ain't all that bad..."

January: the month of bulging credit card bills, empty bank accounts, failed New Year's resolutions, and the constant pressure of needing for this to be the best year yet. All coupled with less sunlight, frigid temperatures, and that post-holiday slump. Frankly, I'm pretty sick of the month in general. 

For a while, I thought I was the only one who suffered from the January blues. But, after a little research (Blue Monday? Who knew?) and chats with those who I spend the most time, it seems everyone is having some struggles. There are mini life crises, questions about where God is leading, relationships that are struggling, financial strain, taxes looming, sickness, new insurance confusion, and the list goes on and on. 

To combat some of my own January demons I've spent a lot of time trying to find some inspiration, pretty much everywhere I can find it. Conclusion? Life isn't all that bad. We have a very limited view of life. We can't see even a fraction of the road that God has laid before us. We barely see the next step most days. However, we do see everyone's smiles and celebrations on Facebook, Instagram, etc. and start to wonder why everyone else has a better life. They don't. That's just the stuff they are throwing out there. And... I'm just as guilty. We don't post pictures of the group text messages where we are trying to comfort each other through the battles or the 'couch moments' coupled with the ugly cries. Instead, we pick out all the laughing, fun, exciting moments to share with the world. No, I'm not advocating using social media as your therapist because, if we're honest, we don't want to read that either BUT it's helpful to share the downs in life with those closest to you, just as much as we share the pretty moments. 

So... Maybe these little blurbs of inspiration that I've found will help you a little too. (None are original, all come from somewhere/something I've read.)

* "If anything inhibits fulfillment, it is probably our own unwillingness to let God fulfill us where we are now, with what we have now, as the persons we are now."

* "Find rest, O my soul, in God alone, my hope comes from him." Psalm 62:5

* "Self-pity is the response of pride to suffering."

* "God doesn't expect me to know it all, have it all, or do it all. He just wants me to trust Him through it all." 

* "We can try our best to control all our circumstances to ensure we don't get hurt or that we'll get what we want, but it will never produce anything more than anxiety."

* "God is working on your problem. And what you need to do in the meantime is stay calm, stay sweet, stay out of fear, and keep on keepin' on."

* "I showed God my agenda and expected him to oblige. What I missed was that He is the door. This was not about me checking off my to-do list of accomplishments, but about me drawing closer to Him."

* "God is the author and perfecter of your dream. Our job is not to figure it all out, manipulate it into being, make the contacts, guard it fiercely, and stake an unwavering claim on it. God started it. God is faithful and more than able. God will finish it."

So... Just remember... Life isn't all that bad. We all struggle, we all have days of emotional crisis, and even the Type A/OCD ones of us won't ever get it all right. I just hope that you surround yourself with people who will listen to you vent, remind you that you are loved by God and them, and show up when the time calls for it. 

So, let's try to embrace life, the good and bad, and realize that we're all in this broken world together.