More Insight

Insight

(Dragonfly Ministries President, Mary Hamrick)

September 2004

Over the past several months, God has impressed on my heart the importance of friendships.  I wrote my Insight article last month about friendships, and as time goes by, He teaches me even more.  Recently, the Lord placed on my heart the desire to start a women’s Bible study at our church on the topic of “The Friendships of Women”, by Dee Brestin.  As I prepare for the study weekly, I am reminded of the journey He has brought me through to teach me about friendships.

A few months after moving to Maryland, I found myself at an elementary school musical which I attended with my fourth grader (who was performing).  Andy and Tyler were attending a youth baseball game, where Andy coaches and Tyler plays.  As I sat in the auditorium waiting for the program to begin, I realized how lonely I felt – I was alone in a crowded room, looking around for a familiar face, and my heart sank.  I prayed, “Lord, bring into my life women who will love me and lift me up, friends that you have chosen for me, and teach me to love them with your love.”

This wasn’t the first time I had cried out to God for girlfriends.  When I was a 5th grader in York, South Carolina, I began to ask God to give me a friend, a God-friend, that loved Him and that would love me too.  I had a friend from church, but she attended another elementary school, and I felt very alone.  After two or three years of praying, He brought me a blonde haired, blue-eyed friend all the way from Florida and we became fast friends.  Jan and I have shared the experiences of dating, graduating, marriage, children, divorce, family deaths, joys and sorrows, and becoming grandparents.   Though the miles have separated us for years, God continues to grow our love for each other and for Him.

When we moved to Texas in 1996, I began to pray and ask God for friendships of women who loved Him, but I didn’t know how to recognize the gifts that He was already placing in my path.  As I continued to pray, He continued to guide and to gift wonderful friendships in answer to my fervent prayers.  He blessed me with women who knew and loved Him, and He blessed me with women who He wanted to know and love Him.  When I look on the friendships of women that God has given and continues to give, I am humbled and drawn to my knees to whisper a prayer of thanksgiving.  

God wants us to have friendships, to celebrate our lives with other women, to encourage and be encouraged, to love and be loved, to pray with our friends and to laugh and cry with them.  God created friendships, He ordained them, He blesses them, He encourages them, and He orchestrates them.  He gives friendships that will last a lifetime because of our common bond of love for Him.  If you ever find yourself alone in a crowded room, ask God to bring Christian friends into your path and ask Him to open your eyes to see the gifts that He has already started giving you.  

Mary