Posted in Encouragement

The Lord has blessed my husband and I in recent months with some very dear friendships.  We have made some new friends and renewed some older friendship we hadn't realized the value of before.  There is nothing like a good talk with a likeminded brother or sister in the Lord to lift spirits and renew outlooks.

One of the wonderful friendships the Lord has sent my way is with a lady who I have known for just over a year, but who I feel I have known forever.  Lyn is a blogging buddy who has become a real-life friend.  She and her family lived just two towns away from us, but we didn't "meet" until after she had moved all the way to Virginia and we both started blogging!  My family recently had the tremendous privilege of meeting this dear lady and hear sweet family face-to-face.  Her children played with mine, her husband and mine got to talk theology and politics, and she and I spoke of common struggles, both major (see her most recent blog entry) and everyday (she's raising a passle of little blessings, too).  What a blessing to know these wonderful people.

There have been other friendships the Lord has brought to us lately.  There's the hidden treasure of fellowship with folks we've known for years and didn't realize were just as lonely as we had been.  There are the friends who, though they live in the next state and we've only met in person once, have through prayer for one another become so very dear to our hearts.  And there are of course the oldest, dearest, closest friends who have become dearer and closer through shared vision and trials.

I know I've said before how blessed and encouraged I am by true fellowship with likeminded Believers.  Those who follow Christ wholeheartedly often walk a lonely road.  We need one another.  We need the encouragement and accountability of others who take the Scriptures seriously.  Praise the Lord for the gift of friendship.