Seasons of Friendship

Hello, Ladies. What a gorgeous day we had last Friday for our gathering! Thank you once again, Marisa, for hosting it. It was so nice out we were able to hold our meeting outside while all the kids played – it was fabulous! Anyway, we started up our focused topic discussions where we had everyone write questions down, and we chose two to discuss. Friday’s questions were “How do we deal with public temper tantrums?” and “Have you ever experienced post-partum depression, and how did you cope with it?”. I love the variety of experiences that every one of us has to draw on and the differing answers for every woman. I’m so looking forward to more discussions with all of you!

We determined we would choose another question to discuss for next week so be thinking about this one over the course of this week. It is in regards to respecting our husbands – do we respect them? How do we respect them? Do they feel respected? I know some of us have the book Love & Respect. Maybe those of you who are in the process of reading it or have read it will have some tidbits of wisdom to share or even quotes from the book that might be relevant. It’s such a great question and an important issue in every marriage.

We also determined that we really must come up with a good name for our group rather than “that mom thingy”. So please come up with some good names and we’ll put them to a vote. It doesn’t need to be too fancy or take too much time or thought – let’s just name us something! Feel free to email me ideas if it’s easier…

Each week I’m going to be trying to insert some idea about “friendship” and the value of it in our lives. Though I share some of these in our groups, I understand not everyone will be present for it or remember it. So on that note I’d like to share an excerpt from a book I’m reading called “Seasons of Friendship”:

“If we have a primary relationship, too often time pressures cause us to ignore or compromise the very friendships that would provide a matrix of connections that would nourish a marriage or a specially-bonded relationship. Without friends, even our primary relationships lose their quality and resiliency because we fall into habits or patterns that might be challenged or changed by new friends. The friends who provide space for our individuality – and companionship for the loneliness created by that individuality – also provide a context for self-identity that is essential to being truly alive. Without friends, we lose touch with our humanity.
The trouble is that close friendships are hard to nurture and even harder to keep in our transient world. Most of us have learned more about losing friends by moving away than we know about finding new ones or about deepening the friendships we have. The emphasis on individualism and autonomy in our culture works against making sacrifices to maintain a valued friendship, but I believe God has planted a seed of longing to be known and understood that blooms into friendship if given half a chance.”

Crystal