One is Silver and the Other's Gold

When I was in Girl Scouts we closed every meeting by singing "Make new friends, but keep the old . . . one is silver and the other's gold".   The older I get, the more thankful I am for the silver and gold in my life.

In 2003 one of my closest friends moved to Wisconsin to get her Master's degree.  I got married in March, 2004 and that July I had to say good-bye to my other two close friends the same week, as one moved to Pennsylvania, and the other moved out of the country to go on the missions field.   It was a very rough time for me because I felt like I had no friends.

In the coming years I quit my job to be a stay-at-home-mom and had two kids.  I had a MOPS group I attended, but still felt very alone because my closest friends lived so far away.  I'd see other ladies in the group who had formed a bond with each other, but I didn't have anyone like that.    Last December I opened up to a couple of ladies about how I was feeling and they started inviting me to hang out with them.   The three of us have sons who are within a few months of each other in age and daughters who are about 18mo apart.   This relatively "new" friendship has been a huge blessing in my life.

This past June my closest friend (who had moved to PA) was back "home" visiting for a few weeks and she had the genius idea of inviting a bunch of girls we went to college with over to her rental house for a slumber party.   I'm closer to some of the ladies than others, but had an amazing time thinking about the 16+ years we've known each other and the roads we've travelled together.  I came home from that night physically tired, but emotionally full.   We had met when we were 17 and 18 . . . we all lived in the dorms together.  Over the years many of us had been roommates with each other and now we are in our mid-30's, married and with families of our own.  Life is quite different at 34 than it is as a college freshman, but our friendship remains.

Last night one of my other close friends, who is the one who had moved to WI, but now lives in Tennessee, and I met for coffee.   Because she had to pick up her husband at the airport we had less than 2hrs to spend together, but again, my heart was full after our talk because her friendship is a beautiful gift.

In our day and age it's easy to communicate via e-mail, text, cell phones, facebook, etc, but there is absolutely no subsititue for hanging out and talking to girlfriends face-to-face.

I am incredibly thankful for the gold and silver God has given me . . .