Friendships can enrich your life

Good friends are good for your soul.  Friends celebrate you.  Friends cry with you.  Friends also help encourage and support you through the seasons of parenthood or marriage.  The enjoyment and comfort found in the presence of a good friend makes the investment worth it.  It's quality; not quantity that matters.  

But.....is friendship a priority to you? 

I think alot of us would say that it is not.  Maybe we feel we don't have time for it.  Maybe we don't feel we have the emotional space for it.  Or maybe we feel like it's so hard to meet other moms when we are home raising kids and seriously feeding them all day long!

I feel ya!

Friendships can play a major part on your own health and well being.  But it's not easy to develop or maintain friendships.  Especially as we pursue a career, raise a family and pour into our marriage; our friendships take a back seat to this season in our life.  Friendships do take effort and as adults we have to be more intentional with those friendships in order to maintain them.  

But how?

• Go extend an invitation to someone new or reconnect with an old friend!  Stop waiting for the invitation!  
• Reach out to that old friend you haven't seen in awhile! This could simply be a letter or a text.
• When it comes to past coworkers or maybe someone you have taken a class with, follow them on social media and engage with their posts.  Keep up with their life.
• introduce yourself to neighbors and show up at your community events
• Go grab coffee with the mom you just met at church.    
• reconnect with the ladies you shared a table with at bible study and start to meet weekly for brunch.
• start a walking group
• set up playdates

Persistence also matters.  take the initiative rather than waiting for invites to come your way and keep trying.  It may take a few suggestions for plans to finally settle on a time, place, and activity that works mutually for you both.  That's okay!  

Keep sowing seeds of friendship and belonging throughout your circle of influence.  Smile.  Be positive.  You may not become besties with everyone you meet but maintaining a healthy relationship and being a friendly face in their life may be all they need right now.  It's important to be a good friend and love others as you yourself desire to be loved.  

Be kind.

Be a good listener. 

Open up once you have built trust.

Be dependable so you can establish trust.

Make yourself available.  

Talk on the phone.

Check in with them.

Set boundaries.

We can find those people that become OUR people and start creating a circle of influence that aligns with out values and beliefs.  And we can do this while still pursuing a career, raising a family, and pouring into a marriage.  Because a good friend will encourage you to continue running after all these things.  We are better together!!

1 Thessalonians 5:11 "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing."

When was the last time you sat with a friend?