Friendships Among Women

I'm going to start a new series today on "Friendships Among Women." I'm not sure how long it will be - maybe 2 posts maybe 20 it all depends on when I run out of information.

I have been pondering on this subject lately for a couple reasons. The first reason is that I have realized this year (almost my 53rd year of life) that one of the greatest (and I did say one, as there are many others) blessings in my life are my friendships with other women.

The second reason is that someone asked me very recently to share how I cultivate the relationships in my life and I was stumped, I never thought about it. I guess I just thought it just happened. Well, that questions stuck with me and I began to realize that it hasn't always been like this, about 9 years ago I went through a period of time that I literally did not have a close friend. I was lonely. I had forgotten about that time in my life until this question was asked.

I began to look back at some old journals I have - and believe me - I am not a consistent journaler but I do have at least a couple entries a year and they are usually at times when I am not in a good place.

So I found an entry from June 11, 2002 and this is what it said, "I don't have any true friends, the ones I have had have, we have moved apart. I have prayed for a friend that I can talk to, laugh with, enjoy being with. Of course I have my wonderful guy, but sometimes you just want and need to talk or hang out with a girl friend. Lord, I pray for you to send me a friend, someone that I can have understanding with and can grow in you with."

I had totally forgotten about that time but as I read the journal it all came back. I remember feeling so lonely, even at events with large amount of people I felt alone.

I began to ponder what happened, what changed how did I go from that very alone place to where I am now - a place of being truly blessed with incredible women and friendships in my life.

So that is where we are going with this blog series. I am going to try to uncover why we as women need friends, how do we find those women who are just the right connection for us and how do we maintain these friendships once we have them. We are going to talk about what qualities we need to develop in our lives to be someone that others want as a friend. I also have found some really fun and interesting scientific studies that have been done on friendships among women that I will share.

I do want to say thank you to every women in my life, my family girls, my prayer partners, my life coach buddies and individual friends that input so much into my life - you know who you are. God truly answered that prayer from 9 years ago when I asked for a friend to talk to, laugh with and hang with. He answered me abundantly but he also required something from me and that it what we are going to explore together.

If you are in a place of lonliness as I was 9 years ago, don't give up hope. God is doing a work in you and when you are ready He will flood your gates with all the wonderful relationships you can handle!


As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. Proverbs 27:17 (New Living Translation)