Get Yourself Some Girlfriends, Godly Girlfriends
Mom, do you have an inner circle of Jesus-loving, godly girlfriends? If not, I highly recommend pursuing relationships where you can be transparent, authentic, and vulnerable. Choose friends that value you as divinely created, blessed, and precious in God’s eyes.
I love my inner circle fiercely. My prayer warrior girlfriends have seen me at my best and worst. They don’t back away when I sob in pain and disappointment. They celebrate with me when I excel, loose a few pounds, or publish a new book. There’s comfort, confidentiality, and peace which allows me to be myself and each of them to be themselves too. God knits these relationships together in love, trust, and fun!
Years ago, my BSF teaching leader, Bev Coniaris, shared this story. A close friend, Cindy, read it recently at a prayer breakfast. The author is unknown. The words are powerful… and true.
Get Yourself Some Girlfriends
Young and newly married, I relaxed under a pecan tree on a hot Texas summer day, drinking iced tea and getting to know my new sister-in-law, Estelle. Not much older than I, but already the mother of three, Estelle seemed to me experienced and wise. “Get yourself some girlfriends” she advised, clinking the ice cubes in her glass. “You are going to need girlfriends. Go places with them; do things with them.”
What a funny piece of advice, I thought. Hadn’t I just gotten married? Hadn’t I just joined the couple-world? I was a married woman, for goodness sake, not a young girl who needed girlfriends.
But I listened to this new sister-in-law. I got myself some girlfriends. As the years tumbled by, one after another, gradually I came to understand that Estelle knew what she was talking about. I remembered that she had said the word girlfriends with emphasis. As I went along, I discovered the subtle difference between friends and girlfriends.
You go to work with friends, go to dinner with friends, go to church with friends, belong to clubs with friends. You send friends greeting cards. You need friends in your life; all girlfriends were once only friends. But a girlfriend is different. I offer this praise of girlfriends. Here is what I know about girlfriends:
Girlfriends don’t compete.
Girlfriends bring casseroles and scrub your bathroom when you are sick.
Girlfriends keep your children, and keep your secrets.
Girlfriends give advice when you ask for it. Sometimes you take it, sometimes you don’t.
Girlfriends don’t always tell you that you’re right, but they’re always honest.
Girlfriends still love you, even when they don’t agree with your choices.
Girlfriends might send you a birthday card, but they might not. It does not matter in the least.
Girlfriends laugh with you and you don’t need canned jokes to start the laughter.
Girlfriends don’t talk about you behind your back.
Girlfriends pull you out of jams.
Girlfriends don’t keep a calendar that lets them know who hosted the other last.
Girlfriends will give a party for your son or daughter when they get married or have a baby in whichever order that comes.
Girlfriends are there for you, in an instant and truly, when the hard times come.
Girlfriends listen when you lose a job or a husband.
Girlfriends listen when your children break your heart.
Girlfriends listen when your parents’ minds and bodies fail.
My girlfriends bless my life. Once we were young, with no idea of the incredible joys or the incredible sorrows that lay ahead. Nor did we know how much we would need each other. I want to tell younger women to take my sister-in-law’s advice. Get yourself some girlfriends. You are going to need them.
© 2021 Becky Danielson. All rights reserved.
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