Triple Braided Cords

Ecclesiastes 4:9–12 “Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.” (NLT)

I spent the weekend with some friends.  It sounds so simple doesn't it?  You are probably thinking "so what...so did I".  I know.  Who would brag about something as simple as spending the weekend with some friends?  For the statement to make sense, you would have to understand what an absolute gift this is for me.  When you are broken, you keep yourself far from friends.  You don't want them to know your secrets.  You don't want them close enough to find out who you think you are, fearing that they might hurt you in their leaving, in their cruel words, in their shunning of you.  You never give them a chance to do those things.  You just build up the entire scenario in your mind, complete with it's unhappy ending, leaving yourself standing, cold and alone, mired in a quagmire of your own making.  

Once I realized that I was a daughter of God, a woman of worth, I learned how to become a friend.  At first I thought I could only have one friend, maybe two.  You get a little nervous at fifty trying to "make" friends.  Will they still like you if you call at two in the morning to talk about your miserable hot flashes?  Will they still be your friend when you have stood them up for the umpteenth time because your children have created chaos in your life again?  Will they look at you like your crazy if you ask them to spend a weekend at the beach with you?  Sans husbands and kids?  Yes but they will be cranky.  Yes but they might not make you pick up the tab next time.  Yes they would LOVE to go with you (Yay for Sandy!)

God has blessed me with so many new friends these last few years.  I am constantly amazed at just how He knows who to put into my life.  Last year at She Speaks, my roommate was Jenny Harrison.  You would have thought we had been friends our entire lives.  It's like we just know what we need to know about each other.  (don't worry guys.  It's a girl thing)  She invited me to attend the Women of Faith event in San Antonio.  It is a regular event for her group of friends and they were only too happy to let me into their circle.  I was nervous and almost backed out several times.  Old habits die hard, leaving me still scared about not being liked or not being accepted. But God whispered, sweetheart encouraged, Jenny loved, and off I went.  

I overdressed, over planned, over packed, and over thought the entire event.  When we all met up at the Alamodome, it was like I had known them all my life.  Truly it was like a bunch of teen girls, hanging out, laughing, just being girls.  The first thing Jenny gave me was a beautiful silver necklace.  Nothing big or fancy.  Just a silver crown on a silver chain.  A reminder that we are all daughters of The King.  It made me cry.  By the end of the weekend I had ditched my painful high heels, switched my dressy shirt for a really cool women of faith t shirt, and filled my heart with more words of wisdom than I could have ever dreamed possible. Gone was my well planned jewelry and matching outfits.  Gone was my well thought out witty conversation.  Gone was my ego and my fear.  

I learned how to have a real, no holds barred, nothing is sacred group of girls weekend.  We laughed, we cried, we got lost, we talked about big butts, we picked on bad drivers, we applauded weight loss, we talked about pain and heartache and joy and love.  Not just the 7 of us.  I mean the entire stadium of women including the speakers!  It wasn't a weekend full of women talking about the perfect life.  It was a stadium full of previously broken women who have risen or who are rising out of the ashes.  Beautiful, loving, imperfect, sometimes make you mad, sometimes make you cry, bad hair day, not enough coffee, forgetful, bring you chocolate  bestest friends in the whole wide world.  

I included the song We Shall Behold Him by Sandi Patty who sang and spoke at the event.  I will write more about her in tomorrow's blog.  Suffice it to say that I did behold Him.  In each and every woman's face this entire weekend.  Hands lifted in praise, laughing outside eating turkey sandwiches sitting on the concrete, standing in line for the bathroom (never enough), making faces at the camera (Lisa Welchel), or dancing around the auditorium to Mandisa singing "Stronger", there was not one moment that lacked His presence.  I can't wait to bring my old friends to meet my new friends.  The bond only grows stronger as  you add more friends.  Thank you dearest Abba for teaching me about friends.  Let me be as good a friend to them as they are to me.  Let the cords of our friendship bind us together forever, even into eternity.  Let us remember that You are our best friend and through You we can do anything.