#proverbs17:17

[a-ginlynn]

"A man that has friends must show himself

friendly: a friend sticks closer than a brother."

"A friend loves at all times.

[lindamuthamablogposts-blog]

Why are people hurt in church?

Because when they walked in all they wanted was help. People come to church with a notion that they have come to find God. Then what do they meet? They meet me the church going Christian, who never missed church. Who is dressed in my Sunday best which is just the right length? Not too tight lest the brothers stumble. Not too short lest the women think I want to seduce their husbands. But these are thoughts in their heads . Majority of the people in church are in masks, very well-manicured nails and excellent simple makeup. These are the people we find in the church. So when you walk in hoping to find God, you find judgement, what a disservice to the world when we Christians crucify people for their sin yet Christ died for that. What will the drunken man who stumbles into church do? What will the divorced woman do?  What will that girl who has been molested do? What about the lesbian who is in church? You want to cast him/her out because he is defiling the clean space. But is that what Jesus Christ demands of us? Well the day we decide to agree to remove the mask, then and only then will Christ dwell amongst us. The fact that we cannot see what you are hiding behind your mask doesn’t mean it is not there. Jesus Christ calls us to be truthful and to love one another like Jesus  Christ has loved the church. Yet you wonder why no one is coming for the alter call anymore,  If we are not ready to lead a life that leads people to Jesus Christ…not to us, but to Jesus Christ, we have missed the mark already. When we got off our pedestals, and let people know that we hurt too and we cry for help; when we stop taking the role of being the savior. I have a relationship with Jesus Christ and I know that if I do not love people back to the cross, I am no better than the Pharisees who were busy cursing Jesus Christ out.

[carolina-love-song]

"I love you like a sister"

My whole life I was home schooled. Momma taught me to read at 4 years old. Thus began my love of reading and writing. When I’m feeling too much to process, I write, so here we go.

My sisters were home schooled like me. Leah until she was a freshman in highschool and Rachel until the middle-ish of elementary school. Because of our being home schooled, from the day they were born we were always together. We all three shared a room for years and years. When we lived in Arkansas and Oklahoma we were pretty much each others only friends and playmates. We would play barbies, make doll houses and furniture out of cardboard boxes, and run around the back field with our fluorescent orange hats on so no one would shoot us because thats how rural the area was. We did everything together. Everything. Its easy to see how we had such a strong relationship and bond. We were all each other had as entertainment for a very long time.

Through the teenage years, Leah and I would all but barricade ourselves in her room, blast our angsty teenager emo music, read our weird vampire demon books, and talk about anything and everything. From the stupid and nonsensical to the heavy and emotional, we knew each other inside and out. I’m not sure what Rachel was upto during those times. Probably feeling left out.

After I got married and moved to Georgia, I still talked to Leah several times a week and occasionally spoke with Rachel. While I was living out of state, Rachel turned into a very mature, smart, sensitive young lady. Something that I was very happy to move back to. When Andrew and I moved back to Greenville, Leah and Rachel were always at our apartment. We would swim, shop, cook, and eat all in one day. Then they’d spend the night and we’d do it all again the next day. That went on for about a year before things started going downhill with Leah.

Leah was my first friend and remained my best friend until she was nineteen years old. Mine and Rachel’s relationship wasn’t too rosy until she was in middle school. She was the youngest girl and always wanted to play with Leah and me. To me she was too young and just an annoyance but I tolerated her presence. It wasn’t until her last year of middle school that we started to get closer. From there it grew into the beautiful sister to sister relationship that I once had with Leah.

When mine and Leah’s relationship came to a screeching hault due to various life choices, mine and Rachel’s was the only bond like it that I had left. She became the person I did everything with. We shopped, worked together, went out for lunch, and talked about what was making us happy and what we were struggling with. She almost always spent weekends at mine and Andrew’s apartment. Our relationship became exactly what I had lost with Leah.

Over the past few years I’ve watched Rachel rise, flourish, struggle, fall, and do it all over again. She’s wise beyond her years because of the many mistakes she saw Leah and I make. She’s so smart, kind, funny, talented, and just a genuinely good person. She has a beautiful soft kind soul and everyone can see it. Some take advantage of it. The past several months I’ve seen her excitement in applying to various colleges and shared in her excitement as she got accepted into nearly all of them. While I shared her excitement and was so proud of her, a little selfish part of me was thinking “please don’t leave me”. In the past few months she has found friends she really loves. People she wishes she had found sooner. Friends who truly are like her in that they don’t judge but encourage, strengthen, love, and uplift one another. Because of that, she has spent less and less time at home and with me. While I try not be hurt or upset by that, I fail miserably. I should be happy that she’s found such people but instead I’m jealous for her time that used to be nearly all for me. Time that I no longer get atleast my fair share of. My heart says “I was with her through it all so I deserve all the time these next few months hold before she leaves for college”. My heart aches at the thought of her being 3 hours away from me come August/September.

I’ve had and have friends, some for 20 years, but none like my sisters. Because of the things we’ve walked through together that we would never tell another soul about, I will never have a friend or friends like my sisters. Thats hard to accept when one relationship will never be the same and one is struggling through some changes that are hard and painful for me.

“How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”

[amhowell1]

NYC 2014, friends are friends forever..❤

[girlsseekinggod]

"Friends love through all kinds of weather, and families stick together in all kinds of trouble."

-Proverbs 17:17 (MSG)"The Message"