When Friends Become Family

Well my friends…we meet again.

Is anyone else slightly concerned that the temperatures are hitting 77 degrees in December? It is completely ridiculous. As always, I digress.  So with this being the holiday season, (and finally being done with exams!) I have had a bit of time to give some thought to what I am thankful for.  Of course there are so many things to be thankful for in my life, but one thing that has really stuck out to me recently is the blessing of the friendships I have made within the last four months.  Over the past four months I have met some of the best friends I have ever had.  You see, in high school I didn’t have very many “friends” (I had a lot of acquaintances and every body knew me and talked to me, but I didn’t have many true friends).  Where I grew up, when you were new in the community you were “accepted”, but never truly accepted.  You were “accepted” into long standing friend groups, but they never treated you like they did the people they went to kindergarten with.  This caused a lot of problems with bullying and feeling a lot of peer pressure to fit in and be like everyone else.  So when I entered college, those were the kind of friendships I was use to (not being accepted and having to fit in so people wouldn’t make fun of you), but college has been completely different.  When I began school this year I met some of the most amazing people I have ever met.  They all come from different background, but they all have one thing in common.  They all love Jesus.  Just being around them and watching their actions you can tell that they are the hands and feet, and they are living out the gospel.  Reflecting back on how blessed I am to have met them, all I can think is, “What did I do to be so blessed as to meet these wonderful people?”  The friends I have made this year have been able to feed me both spiritually and physically (because frankly we all love to eat…especially cookout).  They love adventure and they love having fun.  They love worshiping Jesus and helping others.  All of these people have some of the biggest hearts I have ever met…they care about EVERYONE.  Since I have met them, they have caused me to grow in my faith and seek God more than ever. They have loved me for who I am and “adopted” me in to their long-standing friendships. I honestly do not know where I would be without them.  What’s ironic is how I met each one of them… I was soaking wet after cross country practice, had three slices of pizza, and just got a wild hair to go to talk to them…that’s how I met my family.  Yes my lovely readers, that’s right, I did call them my family. I believe God puts people in our lives for a reason.  Every single person we meet is placed in our life to fill a need and teach us something.  Sometimes we aren’t sure what God is doing when he puts people in our lives, but one thing we can be sure of is that God is using them to grow you.  So my friends I challenge you to reflect this holiday season on what you are thankful for, and I also challenge you to let your friends know just how much you love and appreciate them.  God has placed certain people in your life for a reason, and it is always interesting to figure that reason out…so keep yours eyes open and watch God blessing you through others (and maybe even blessing others through you).

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.”

John 15:13

“But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.”

Ruth 1:16