Golden Girls!

It's a grey Saturday afternoon after a morning of nice, bright sunshine, a bit warmer though which makes me glad.....I'm trying to do what the doctor prescribed:  REST!  That's hard for me.  I like to be busy!!  But...am on this steroid for inflammation of the lower back, plus a muscle relaxant, and therefore, I'm trying to be a good patient....am just doing minimal household chores today and letting my daughters pull their own weight with their own bedrooms.  My husband has been helpful but he is dealing with a persistent cough that weakens him.  We really can't complain though....we made it (all four of us!) through the school year, up to this past week, with no illness.  My back is slowly healing and I will be back in the classroom, hopefully, on Monday morning.  Meanwhile....

...here is what God is nudging me to write about:  my "golden girlfriends". (no, I don't mean we are in our "golden years"...lol...)  In my last post, a reader left me a comment about friends being "golden".  It made me smile because I had just read in my Women of Faith Bible a little anecdote about friends being like gold.  It was an anecdote based on the Scripture from Proverbs 17:17.  This was "our verse" (Dave's and mine) while we were dating/engaged. (the first part of the verse) Here are the words taken from the New King James Version:

"A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity."

 The anecdote was written by Karen Kingsbury (Christian fiction author) and she stated that she was told once that our circle of friends gets smaller as we get older.  And that the friends who do stick around are like gold---pure gold!

Sometimes our friends come and go throughout our lives.  I had some best friends in college, who because of distance and now different career paths, are no longer my "best" friends.  Yet...they are still friends....many of them keep in touch via Facebook or via yearly Christmas cards.  The one thing we still have in common is our unity in Christ.  We are brothers and sisters in Christ.  I love that!  There is nothing like Christian friends....we can lift each other up, encourage each other, edify each other with God's Word or through our prayer journaling.  We pray for, and with, each other.

And...this past week I've needed to let my friends help me.  When my friend Monica offered to drive me to and from the doctor's, I was reminded that this is a "golden girl".  A woman friend who was willing to drop what she had planned for the morning and just be a friend. I could have driven my self to the doctor's office.  But...she has had back pain before and told me I should not be driving....therefore, she offered.  Sometimes it is difficult for me to accept help.  I have always been so darn independent, often relying on my own strength.  I was single all during my twenties.  A single woman living in the city of Albany learns to be independent and strong.  But...now that I am in "middle age" I realize just how golden my friendships are to me.  The close friends and the more casual acquaintances.  Each one is precious and special to me. Yes, my closest friends are smaller in number than my acquaintances.  But that is rather normal.  Almost all of us have Christ in common so we are all sisters in the Lord.  And THAT is golden!

Let's continue to reach out to one another.....our close friends....loving at all times, persevering with each other's quirks, coming alongside each other as we navigate through our middle years of life, praying for one another as we raise up teenagers and begin to send them off to college.....all the things that we are involved in at this season of our lives.

I treasure each golden girl in my life.......and give thanks to the Lord for them.

how about you?  do you have some golden girls in your life??