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When I started this post about the inspiration of Faith and Friends, I intended to go a different direction with it but it wasn’t coming together. I stopped, saved it, and spent some time praying about it. Then God directed it the way it should go. (Psalm 3:6)

Laughter, Perfection, Sunshine, Peace, and Fairy Dust are my “no matter what” friends.

No matter what I do or say or what they do or say, we will always be friends. There is nothing that will make us stop loving each other. I won’t use their names but they will recognize themselves. These ladies have been my “Jesus with skin on” throughout my life.

My friend of Laughter and I met when we were thirteen years old girls.

We met through old boyfriends. The boyfriends are past history but our friendship is stronger than ever. We grew from little girls to women together and all that that entails. Our wedding pictures are strangely similar because we were each other’s Maid and Matron of Honor and helped each other with every detail. We shared our youth, met the loves of our lives together, she was there holding my hand when I had my first baby and I was there when she lost hers.

We’ve experienced many triumphs and tragedies and I know I would be a mess without her. We don’t live close by each other any longer but when we do have a chance to visit it is like we never parted. The few treasured hours we have together become a time of just being little girls again including all of the thirteen-year-old giggles and silliness.

Perfection and I met at the ripe old age of nineteen in college.

She ate meat in those days, colored her hair, wore makeup and many things she would never, ever do today. She has taught me so many things about life including homemaking, recycling, nutrition, and budgeting. We have laughed, loved, and gotten in and out of lots of trouble together.

She knows all of my college secrets that I so wish no one knew and I know hers. We walked through the stress of studying for tests, passing dental hygiene boards, starting new careers, and marriages joined at the hip. We were in each other’s weddings and are neighbors to this day.

Sunshine came in to my life after my husband and I were married about 6 years and moved to a small country town.

My husband and I had a twenty month old and did not know a soul in that little town. Sunshine was the first person I met and immediately immersed me into our little church, became my BFF, and asked me to teach Vacation Bible School with her.

Sunshine taught me how to become a true servant of the Lord. She is a mighty warrior for the Kingdom. We have had more adventures and gotten out of more messes than I want to count. I hate math so I won’t try.

Sunshine introduced me to my sweet friend of Peace.

Let’s just say, the intensity of my personality overwhelmed Peace when we met. I’m not sure she wanted to be my friend at first 🙂 but she didn’t have a choice. I loved her right away and, I can’t explain it, but she quiets my soul.

Peace was the first to invite me to a real grown up ladies Bible study. I had never studied my Bible and I was so intimidated. Peace gave me the confidence to jump in with both feet and grow closer to my God through His word. It is scary and a little embarrassing to know nothing about the Bible but we all have to start somewhere, right?

Sunshine, Peace, and I learned about motherhood, struggled though the first years of marriage, grew in our relationship with our Lord, laughed, cried, prayed, exercised, gained and lost a million pounds, had babies and raised our children together. We have loved and lost many people in our years as friends. Our children grew up in a pack like puppies. They really thought they were related to each other and they are, in Christ.

Don’t think for a minute I forgot about Fairy Dust!

She is my ministry partner and is a party in a box. She is imagination, play-doh, glitter, games, hula-hoops, hoppity hops, new crayons, and fun personified with the perfect mixture of wisdom blended in. When God called me into children’s ministry, she promised she wouldn’t leave me and she hasn’t yet. As much fun as she is, Fairy Dust is probably the hardest on me of all of my friends. She holds my feet to the fire.

Don’t get me wrong Fairy Dust loves me dearly but she sees my potential and won’t allow me to depreciate myself or get stuck in negativity. She listens, sympathizes, and gives advice. She will redirect me if I start to get off the path God wants for me. I call her Fairy Dust because she was raised with a mighty heritage of faith. She allows me to share in that heritage with her and is able to look at everything from perspective of faith.

She is younger than me but is more mature in her walk with the Lord.  When life gets hard she picks me up, brushes me off, sprinkles Fairy Dust, or the power of the Holy Spirit, over me and helps me believe again with God all things are possible, (Matt 19:26).

Our experience with God is like each of these attributes of my friends.

When we begin our walk with Him, our relationship starts with a thrilling testimony to share with others of how we came to know Him. It is immature and more emotion that true faith.  Some of us stop there and are happy living in the joy of our own salvation, never growing past that. – Laughter.

At first we believe what some may say, as Christians, God expects perfection from us. When the opposite is true. He knew we could never be perfect. That is why He sent His Son, Jesus, to die for us. You see we aren’t measured by our fellow man but by God’s standards. He cannot have sin or imperfection in His presence. Rom. 3:23 says, “we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.

If we allow Him to, God begins to work in our lives.

Sometimes the highs are wonderful and excruciatingly powerful – Sunshine. We love these mountaintop times with Him and long for them. So, when He is quiet it is hard to understand. He allows the Peace that we need in our lives in order to rest in Him, where He teaches us how to walk, live and grow closer to Him. The Sunshine and Peace times are the times we praise Him for, revel in, and pray for Him to bless us with everyday.

Then as we mature and begin to serve, pouring out our lives in service to Him and His people, He knows we will need wisdom and  accountability, Fairy Dust, to make it through the hard times. The painful and arduous times in life are when we have to live on trust and the promises of His word in order to keep persevering through life. A life of faith is not a life of just emotional enjoyment of God’s blessings. It doesn’t stop at believing in Him. That isn’t faith at all.

Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Faith by its very nature must be tested and tried. Difficult times are the times when God is trying to prove His character is trustworthy. I heard a pastor say once that the opposite of faith isn’t fear it is certainty. If we are certain of our future, we don’t need God.

The hardest time to trust God is in the times of opposition and that is the exact time He wants us to trust Him and have faith that He is in control. Hebrews 11:6 tells us, “Without faith it is impossible to please God”. Wouldn’t it be easier if He would just tell us everything and show us what is next? But He never said it would be easy. He does promise to be with us and to help us live lives as overcomers.

I pray that you all are blessed with a lifetime of accountability partners or friends like mine. Friends who love you enough to hold you accountable, who aren’t afraid to stop you from straying from the path that God has for you, friends who are intentional and will love you “no matter what” because that is how God loves you.

If you find them, hold on to them and intentionally enjoy them.

Slow down and laugh with them, forgive, and ask forgiveness, these people are treasures to be cherished.  Besides that, they know all of your secrets and could post them on Facebook. They probably even have pictures! You don’t want them mad at you.  Haha

It is a ridiculous to think that God truly knows us and STILL loves us so much that He sent His only Son to die to pay for our sins so that through faith in Jesus we can be saved, now that’s grace and a topic for another post. ☺

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