True Friendship! Helping to "Point your feet"........

     The last few weeks I have been reflecting on friendships.  As I have looked back over the years, especially into my childhood, I can name everyone of my BFF's (Best Friends Forever).  In the early years, growing up in Taos, it was Tracey and Andrea.  We attended school and church together, and during the summer we played, had slumber parties and just "hung out" as kids tend to do.  Then, when I was 10 our family relocated to Virginia.  To me it felt like the other side of the world. I left behind my two bff's and arrived in a place where I knew very few people.  I had plenty of aunts, uncles and cousins around but no one that I could call my best friend...just yet.  Through the next few years, as I moved from Elementary to Middle and then High School I can see where God supplied that one or two friends that I needed, helping me to navigate the difficulties of life that I was encountering at the time.  It was nice to know I could count on that friend to have my back and yet, shoot straight with me when I needed to hear the hard truth about something.  I think of my later years in High School, when I wasn't always making the best of decisions and I was really struggling in my walk with God.  I desperately needed a breakthrough.  It was in that critical moment, of my walk with God, that He brought Wendy storming into my life.  She was a solid Christian, knew what she believed and went wholeheartedly after it.  As messed up as I felt, she never put me aside, refusing to be my friend.  She invited me into her daily life, into her home, and to her youth group.  But in being my friend she also held my "feet to the fire".  I remember well one evening; I had really been struggling with direction for my life.  I had to decide...was I going to let the old ways and old habits take over or was I going to really and truly follow hard after God?  Senior year was about to end and I was riding the fence with indecision.  As we rode in her car, and I was going on and on about not knowing what to do (in reality, just having a pity party and throwing a tantrum) she brought the car to an abrupt stop in a parking lot.  She turned and looked at me; she said "Enough Victoria! Enough! It's time to make up your mind, you know what is at stake, you know what God is calling you to do! But you refuse to make a decision. It's time! Make a decision.  You don't have to figure it all out right now, but at least decide which way you are going to point your feet and start walking!"

Wow! Now that's a friend! But I knew she was right, it was time; and as hard as that was to hear, I could receive it because she had already walked with me through daily life, accepted me for who I was and cared just the same.  She then shared a verse with me that to this day remains one of my favorite verses. It is found in James Chapter 1:5-6 "If you need wisdom-if you want to know what God wants you to do-ask him, and he will gladly tell you.  He will not resent you asking. But when you ask him, be sure that you really expect him to answer, for a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind."
It's been years since High School, but to this day I am grateful for that friendship in my life.  God used Wendy to speak his word and direction into my life at a critical time. Because of that I made the decision to head into a 10 month mission program with Mennonite Board of Missions that radically changed my life. From there I meet and fell in love with my husband of now 14years and we are currently working in ministry and church planting in Nelson County, VA.
We have the ability to impact the people around us each and every day. It's not about preaching to them or beating them with the bible. It's about living daily life with them, inviting them into our lives and loving them where they are at.  That's not always easy...not everyone is easy to love.  But where you? Before you came to Christ what was your life like? Who took a chance on you? My guess is someone did.  My question back to you is...can you , will you, be that for someone else?  There is always that one that is a little harder to be around...heavens, they may just drive you up a wall..but is God calling you to be their friend anyway?
Are boundaries important?  Do we need to watch out for those "toxic" friendships? Sure...of course.  But my hearts desire is that as I go through life I trust that God will bring the friendships I need...but I am also trusting that he will show me who I need to be a friend to...that somehow, through me, God will impact there life to the point that they turn and choose to "point their feet" hard after God.


What God says about friendship:

"I have loved you even as the Father has loved me.  Remain in my love. When you obey me, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father and remain in his love. I have told you this so that you will be filled with joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! I command you to love each other in the same way that I love you. And here is how to measure it - the greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends." (John 15:9-13)


Proverbs 18:24 - "There are "friends" who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother."

I always smile at this picture of my daughter and her best friend. They wanted to take a walk in the park with Michaela's new puppy, Patches. These two share a friend bond that has taken them through the years and now into Middle School. Even though we have moved away they still get together and always seem to "pick up where they left off" the last time they were together.