On Christian Friendship

A big drink of cold water, that's what she was yesterday, and she's just a little thing.

A busy little mama to 5 kids 8 and under, who invited us in for 3 hours.  We kept her baby from napping and got out every single toy and toppled the tee-pee over.

We ate up her mini-muffins and I slugged her coffee and asked her one question after another about her home school, her chickens, her garden, and those precious kiddos.

She's just the kind of friend I need, and the kind you need, too.  She's the kind of friend I want to be.

It's been a long time, and many things have changed.  We do make a little small talk, but life looms large and in every corner of it is God, after all.  There is no small talk.  The Lord's been teaching her, patiently leading her to trust Him and to obey Him in all areas of life.  She says it over and over, "God, He's been so gentle with me."

There is so much I don't know, so many ways in which I need to grow.  She is gentle, too.  She must sense the hunger I have for deep fellowship and friendship, because she asks a couple of times with concerned eyes, "Do you have anyone?"  Goodness, I must seems like a woman dying of thirst.  But I know what she means.  Iron can not sharpen itself.  It is not so easy for one lone flailing mama to pick herself up and go on.

What a messy job this is, motherhood.  In all its elation, ugliness, wonder, and challenge, it is rewarding and messy work.

We agree that nothing sanctifies so intensely as this, us nervous, pecking mother hens trying to train up all these little chicks.  

She points out the window, "See that big hen there?  We think it's because of her that the others won't lay."  I learn that hens only lay eggs for about three years.  

She also tells me that chickens are big-time suckers for peer pressure.  Since this old hen has stopped laying, the others in the brood will not lay either.

The solution was hard and also easy:

The big, tough one has to go.  If you want any more eggs, the bad one has to go.

Oh, how I want to be an encourager to others... to my husband, to my children, and to the rest of the Body.   I pray for continued fruitfulness that spurs others on to love and good deeds!  

I'll take a true friend's wounds over an enemy's kisses. 

Any day of the week.

"Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel."

Proverbs 27:9 ESV