You have so many friends

 I do have many dear friends.

My children tease me and say I meet someone one day and am having coffee or lunch the next day.

I wasn't very friendly growing up.  I had some sort of "I don't fit" attitude.  I have no idea where that came from.  I did have a few special friends - Bonnie, Linda, John Montgomery.  For a few months, I even had a boyfriend.  But even then I was considered quiet. 

In his letter of recommendation on my college application,   My pastor, Gordon Elliott, described me as a quiet young woman.

Once I arrived on the Bryan College campus in 1965 there was an abrupt personality change. For some reason, I felt like I belonged.  I was comfortable in my own skin.  I believe it was because I was on a Christian campus and I felt like everyone else was like me.  I know now that was not always the case.

That was more than 55 years ago.  In the ensuing years, I have made many dear and lasting friends.

I have wondered - exactly what it is that makes people become friends?  

Hum.

Some of my friends share the same faith walk.  

Some share the tendency to laugh at an inappropriate time

And some share the common love of words.

A time or two in my life I have become friends with a person who is grieving the loss of a mate.

Sometimes I've become friends because I needed encouragement  I really appreciate those people who have reached out to me and filled a gap of some sort of another.

When I was in high school, the youth director visited my parents with some concern.  He said I treated the boys the same way that I treated the girls.

Hum - I have had many dear male friends with no other connection rather than the faith, the laughter, the love of words, or the loss of a mate.

And I have not always had success when I reached out to become someone's friend.  If it doesn't work, it doesn't work and I make an effort to move on without beating myself up wondering what I did that kept it from happening.

I used to complain to my mother that I didn't have any friends.  I was the queen of the pity party.  She told me and told me and told me -- "A ma who has friends must show himeself friendly" (Proverbs 18:24a).

I might have finally learned that!

May your life be filled with enough Sunshine 

to make you appreciate the Shadow

PS If you are reading this - I'm pretty sure that it's because you are my friend.  Thanks!