Have you ever thought about why some friends can remain friends for decades and others will only remain friends if they talk daily?  The only reason I have thought much about it is because many folks have commented that they are not like me and how unusual I am.  You see in my book once we became friends, we are friends for life, unless something happens to change that.  Death, divorce, character changes, etc. are the only things that usually remove friends from my world.

True as one of my friends pointed out, some are closer friends than others, but they are still friends.  Jesus may have had his inner circle, Peter, James, and John, but still had the 12, and many others besides like Lazarus and his family, etc.

This picture is some of my dear long-time friends.  We met about 25 years ago when they were new Christians and came to the church I was attending.  We quickly hit it off as our kids were the same age and found we had much in common.  So, we got to experience a lot of firsts together as friends, as Christians, as new parents, in life, etc.

When they moved back to southern California, it was a sorrow filled time for us all, but through the years I have found ways to try to connect and go visit them as often as I could.  This picture was from the most recent time of reconnecting when I was in San Diego.  To me it is always like we pick back up right where we left off, so it is often talking into wee hours of the morning and cramming in as much as we can in too short of time.

It was very exciting to see them venturing into real estate investing now and even being able to share that in common as well.  Our kids are dealing with the same phases of life, and we are right back to remembering why we became friends.

The biggest challenge I have is that, although in my mind nothing changed, others are not like me.  So, in their mind they may think that we are no longer friends simply because we don’t talk daily.  All of our lives are very busy, but texting works great no matter the time zone, or messenger to send a quick video or pic to say I was thinking about you and missing you.  While I’m not as good as I want to be with the constant communication, please know dear friends, we are still friends and I always enjoy hearing from you, no matter what or when, even if only to pray. 

 I will continue to work to do better, but I also need help, if you need reassurance that we are friends and I’m still here, shoot me a text that says remember me, or a pic saying what up?  I will get the message and respond, no matter where I am in this great big world but give it 24 hours in case I’m many time zones away 😉 Let me know how I can pray for you, help you even if only to listen to you vent because you need it, or share in your current experiences.  

I’m still here for as long as the Lord wills!