I was driving last summer with some gals, all of whom are really pretty and slender and smart and have a lot of friends. (So, yeah, intimidating gals.) I risked asking them the question, “Do you feel like you fit in?” Looking at their lives from the outside, I expected their answers to be, “Yes. Sure!” None of them said that. All five, after a lengthy pause and with lowered voices, confessed, “No. I don’t.”
Okay, then. The cat’s out of the bag.
We share the feeling of being odd. Weird. In our inner worlds, we feel alone. And being alone is the first thing that God named as “not good” (Gen. 2:18). You need a couple of friends to share this life with.
A good friend loves you when you are hilarious and when you are hurting. A true friend loves you when you are being kind and when you are PMSing all over the place. She may not love what you are doing, or the dragon you are manifesting, but she loves you.
A friend sees who you are meant to be and beckons you to rise to the higher version of yourself.
Friendship is a high and holy thing, and a two-way street. Friendships are also messy. They are not for the faint of heart.
And that’s the memo.
By Stasi Eldredge from Free to Be Me
