A Very Special Friend

Join me today for Wednesday's Walk Down Memory Lane, Hosted by Dancing Barefoot on Weathered Ground.

Have you ever had a friend that you knew so well that she really felt more like a sister than a friend? Someone who knew you so well that she knew all of your faults but she loved you anyway? Someone who’s door was always open to you, and who wouldn’t mind if you called her late at night because you needed her to pray for you or a family member who was ill, or going through a trial? Someone who would cry with you when your grandchild died and would always take the time to listen when you just needed to talk?

Have you ever had a friend who would let you into the secrets of her soul and share with you her deepest hurts or greatest blessings? Someone who couldn’t wait to share a funny story with you so that you too could experience the joy and laughter that tickled her so! Someone who made several copies of a funny email so she could pass them around and bring smiles into people’s lives?

Someone who let you feel like a part of her family and would share the special moments when her grandchild did something for the first time? But better yet,…before she even had any grandkids and you had several, she listened with her heart when you shared all the antics of your many grandchildren with her,…over and over,…and over again?

Have you ever been so blessed to have someone desire your presence at important times in her life like graduations, weddings, births, and funerals, because it just wouldn’t feel right for you not to be with her during those special times? Also in times of searching for houses when she had to move, and for the furnishings for those houses because she valued your opinions and thought you had good taste? Or a friend who wanted you to have a sleep over when you’d come to see her, and her husband would go on to bed and you two would stay up talking half the night just to catch up with each other,…or you two also stayed awake half the night to watch her favorite movie that was interestingly enough titled,…“While You Were Sleeping!” Ha!

Have you ever had a friend who was so giving that you actually felt guilty because you knew she’d give you the coat off her back if she knew you needed one? Someone who was always looking out for your best interest, and kept her eyes open to find something that she knew you needed,…or even just wanted,…because she wanted you to have just the perfect thing? A friend you could appreciate because she wanted everyone to be as blessed as she was and often shared her blessings with those in need.

How about a friend that knew your heart and what was in it so well, that at the times when you were regretting what you might have said or done to someone she would give you a pep talk and help you come to terms from a realistic point of view, and not let you beat yourself up about it, but encouraged you to look at the situation from a different angle, and somehow you ended up feeling a whole lot better?

Or a friend who would turn to you and listen to you, and actually take your advice when someone else had hurt her and had made her to feel bad,…but you knew your friend’s character so well that you knew it was absolutely not true what that person had said about her,…and she knew she could trust your opinion of her,…because you two were so very close for so many years?

A friend loveth at all times,…and that includes times when you aren’t at your best, or your loveliest. Have you ever had a friend that didn’t care if you were still in your pajamas in the afternoon and wants to stop by anyway because she doesn’t care what you or your house look like,…she just wants to see you, or give you something?… Like the time she knew your birthday was coming up but she had forgotten the actual day and she had made plans with another gal to go out to lunch,…so when you mentioned it was your birthday she runs right over with a gift for you and an honest admission that she made the other plans before she remembered it was your birthday!… And it was perfectly ok with you because that’s the kind of easy relationship you have together, and you know it would not have been meant to hurt you?

Have you had the kind of friend who prays for you and for every member of your family by name on a daily basis and knows all of their needs because she cares about them and always asks you how they are and what they are doing? And she also shares the needs of her family and knows that she can trust you to pray faithfully for them and not to tell others the things that they don’t want spread around? Trust is a big part of friendship and without it the friendship will fizzle.

Have you ever had a friendship where you laugh until you cry over the silliest things and those memories linger year after year so that you can laugh again and again when you think back on them? And a friend that you can laugh at yourself with when you say something, or do something stupid? A true friend forgives and doesn’t hold things against you,…have you had one like that?

It is wonderful to have a friend who is a sister in Christ and one with whom you can go to the house of the Lord with and worship Him together. But have you ever had a friend who hands you a hymn book when you are visiting at her house and she says,…“let’s sing!”, and it feels perfectly natural and wonderful to raise your voices to the Lord together and then she wants to pray and pray and pray again for the needs of other people with you before you leave? Now that is a special friend to have!

Have you ever had a friend who has a thing for pianos and has had about a dozen different ones as she upgrades until she finds just the perfect one and then she lets you plunk away on it and play for her when you don’t even read music but just like to sound things out by ear and you make mistakes along the way? A true friend puts up with you. Have you had one like that?

Have you ever had a funny friend who borrows a Christmas card from you then sends it to you so that you‘ll smile when you open it and it looks familiar,…or a friend who gives you a dozen sweet cards one after another to say thank you when you have helped her move when her business was closing and she wants to be sure you feel appreciated?

Have you ever had a friend that likes to have two of everything because she likes “balance” in her life, and she doesn’t get mad when you tease her about it? How about a friend that likes to tease you back and tries to make you believe she’s serious when she’s telling you a story, but you know her so well that she most of the time can’t pull it off?

How about a friend who runs out and buys you clothes to wear to your brother-in-law’s funeral because you say you have nothing to wear? And because you are flying and you are going to be gone for several days she buys you several cute things just to make you feel better! Huh? Have you ever found a friend that generous and kind?

How about a friend who knows you bought a curio to start collecting purple glassware and with every birthday or Christmas or times in-between she blesses you with a pretty new piece of purple to place in that cabinet?

Have you found a friend that fills both big and little spaces in your life with acts of her affection towards you? Like two cute vases to put on a shelf that she found for a dollar a piece? Or one that gave you money to buy a memory bench for your backyard when your mother-in-law passed away? I dare say these kinds of friends are few and far between and very hard to find.

But my special friend came into my life nearly 30 years ago and she is all of these things and more! She needs me to be kind and loving and gentle with her in this season of her life because she has lost her husband of nearly 40 years and she is missing him so very much! She says she hasn’t “lost” him though because she knows right where he is,…in heaven with the Lord and she will be with him again someday because of her faith in God.

I try to be the kind of friend to her that she has always been to me, but it is a challenge because she has such a gift of being a good friend, and it just comes natural to her. She is fun and cheerful and giving and forgiving, and kind. Her name is Myrna and I thank God for my,… very special friend!