March 28, 2020

I am beyond grateful for one great friendship but to have more than one is a rare and unique bouquet of blessings!

I look back on my life the past years and cherish all the friendships that God has blessed me with in different seasons of my adult life, and I have been beyond blessed.

From the marriage groups we hosted in our home, there is one special person whom I had thought we’d never be friends outside of group because we were so different, but she became one of my most loved friends.

As we became closer, I actually told her that in the beginning of getting to know her, I had thought we couldn’t be as good as friends that we had become because we were so different. We would laugh about this because we noticed that her husband is much like me and my husband is much like her.

I guess it is good that friends can be honest with each other, right? Haha! She still loves me!

We don’t get to see each other as often as we would like because we don’t live as close as we once did and our lives went faster as our children grew taller. We do try to meet a couple times a year, usually around each other’s birthdays since they are almost six months apart. Heidi will always be a forever friend, picking up right where we left off.

I remember years ago, one sweet sister formed an online bible study group that consisted of ten of us. We did a study on how to be a Proverbs 31 woman so we rightly named our group of friends, P31. We got to know each other better and were able to encourage each other through that time in our lives.

We all had jokingly talked about getting P31 tattoos so I looked into the temporary tattoos just for fun, but in the end, two of us decided to “bite the bullet” and get the real deal. I am still waiting to see when the other eight will do it!

As time went by, we all went our separate ways as our children grew and some people moved, but to this day, I still have contact with some whom we can reach out to talk to and pray with and for each other, whether meeting in person, over the phone, or even on-line.

In 2011, there was an art class that I knew one of my girlies would love so I signed her up for lessons. When I realized it was going to be just a couple blocks away from another friend, I called her up asking if she wanted company once a week from me and another friend, whose child was also doing the class.

She was all on board, as she is named the “hostess with the mostest”, I do believe. So, I introduced my friends, Corina and Steph, to each other and suggested we start praying for our blessings using Stormie Omartian’s prayer books such as Power of a Praying Parent. At first, it was awkward to pray together that whole time, but as we continued to meet, it became more natural.

After classes were done, we decided to continue to meet to pray. We also decided to start having weekends together where part of the weekend was spent in prayer over all our blessings and ourselves. We are now going on over eight years of doing this! Because one has moved, we do our weekly praying over the phone. We text updates and then I compile them to send out emails.

Once the three of us started praying together on a regular basis, the enemy was obviously threatened, and by the time fall 2012 came around, we started seeing things in some of our blessing’s lives that were concerning so we knew we needed to step up our prayers. Never did we realize then what a spiritual war we had started.

For me personally, March 2013 came, and I was completely devastated at what was happening in and around my life. It was like the Lord was telling me to “hang on” because I was going to learn what it meant to truly rely on Christ alone. Something I had prayed for many years was that I would know – that I know – that I know – that Christ was truly my First Love, that no one came above Him.

I remember December 2013, I had signed up to go to my first Faithwalkers. Corina was going to go with me as she had already been many times before, telling me how wonderful it was. As the day came, I said I wasn’t going to go because I was in a pit of depression. She said she was heading to pick me up anyway. That’s what good friends do….they pick you up even if you don’t want to go! I am so grateful she did because the Lord knew what I needed to hear during that time.

As the years have gone on with my Storm Sistas, a name I decided fit us well as every time we pray, we are “storming” heaven on behalf of our blessings, and God moves! Life hasn’t gotten any easier, but instead, quite the opposite. However, doing life together, being in prayer together, has made our relationship with each other stronger as we have truly been the iron that sharpens iron.

Like with any friendship, we can annoy each other, and we don’t feel bad to tell each other when we do. Haha! We also can call each other out, sometimes not so tactfully, when we see that we aren’t following God’s direction, and sometimes we don’t like what we hear, but we know that words of truth from a friend are better than flattery from an enemy!

I have another couple dear sisters, Carol and Nancy, that I had Community Group with at church a few years back, and since, we’ve gotten together to catch up, hearing what God is doing in each other’s lives even doing bible studies together. A couple years back, Nancy got us a book titled, Defiant Joy. I then decided that Joy Girls fit us pretty well!

I guess I like naming my sista groups! Haha!

Some of my closest sisters I have known for over 20 years and some just a few years! The bottom line is, my sisters and I, all of whom bring many differences to the mix, have been there for each other when life is wonderful and going well because that is fun and easy!

The truest friendships I’ve been blessed with are the ones that stay with each other through thick and thin, throughout the years, loving each other right where we are at! It is my prayer that everyone can experience this kind of friendship in their lifetime!

~ some of the BEAUTIFUL NAMES in my life ~
Corina ~ Annette ~ Heidi ~ Carol
Robin ~ Bobbie ~ Steph ~ Chelsie
Susan ~ Nancy ~ JoAnna

Blessings,
Jennifer