Intentional and Authentic Friendship

Yesterday I bumped into someone I had been best friends with in middle school and some of high school and college. Last time I saw her was on our graduation day, June 2004. A lot of things have changed since then, but my own desire for friendship hasn't.

I find that friendship is one of the things I struggle with the most. I greatly desire to have at least ONE real, meaningful girlfriend-ship. Someone whom I can be myself with, whom I KNOW will be there for me through thick and thin, someone who will let me be the kind of friend to them that I want to have for myself, someone that I can open up to and be vulnerable with.

"And as you wish others would do to you, do so to them" Luke 6:31

I haven't found it yet. I used to think that I just had too high of a standard, that I expected too much of friends. I figured that it was normal to go months without an email {and only then when I initiated}. I mean everyone is so busy in life, it's understandable that people don't have time to keep in touch....right?.....right?
I'm realizing, that in all honesty, most people are so busy with their own lives that they have no time for authentic friendships, friendships that mean something. Facebook make it all too easy to put it all out there without any true meaning behind it. We've become a world of quick-fixes and need-it-nows. We've given up truth and depth.

"Love one another with brotherly affection. Out do one another in showing honor" Romans 12:10

Often I feel that I'm being pushy, that by emailing or sending letters, by showing concern I'm bothering people who perhaps aren't interested in having me as a friend. I sit and wonder, "Do I persist in trying to be a friend or let it alone?" I'm very much the friend that Ann writes about, the one putting them self out there.

So as someone who values friendship, I thank each one of you who read and comment, being my friend, sharing the ups and downs of my life with me. Encouraging me. Cheering me.