Friendship *heart heart gagging sentimentality*

I love friends! Like, really really love them. I've been in a bit of a funk lately, and today I just kind of monotonously cooked and baked and planned something really awesome of which I cannot mention. But I planned with funk.

And then Stephanie called! And I got to pour out my heart, and she listened and corrected and validated me. And then we laughed forever and ever, and I'm really crazy excited for our honeymoon after Erin and Tim's wedding. (And Erin and Tim's wedding! I'm so crazy excited for that!)

And then Jennie facebooked me an epic message! And she corrected and validated me! I apparently really like that combination in my friends.

So anyway, in light of that, I thought I'd talk about friendships. I've never really thought of myself as very good at them. All through grade school, I was painfully shy, but God forced me out of my shell by consistently taking away my friends. Seriously, I made friends in kindergarten, and none of them were in my first grade class. I made new friends that year, but none of them were in my second grade class. And on and on until in fourth grade, I was literally in one class, and all the friends I'd yet made were together in the other class.

But somehow, I have ended up with awesome friends! It is no exaggeration to say that Turkey changed my life. If Stephanie and Erin were not a part of my life, I would be a completely different person.

And Jennie! The fact that we are friends is so completely because of God. I can remember the exact moment, throwing myself around my Walker Rd apartment because we'd been denied staying off campus the next semester, when I felt God tell me to ask Jennie and Dusty if I could move in with them. I almost didn't because it seemed rude, but I did, and they agreed, and thus a beautiful friendship was born!

Maybe now I have found the point of my post! My best friends are the ones that were given to me by God. I barely talked to Erin in Turkey, but we kept getting thrown together when we got back on campus, and eventually we moved in together, and she was largely responsible for teaching me how to be a godly and spiritual roommate.

Stephanie and I bonded during a Turkey meeting over a shared love of TV shows, but it was God who kept bringing us together, who turned our superficial friendship into something much deeper. I love her because we can build a fort in my living room, then climb inside and discuss what it means to follow God when your life plans turn out to be different from His or when He's calling you overseas.

I love my friends. My heart bursts when I think of them. Liz and I (hey, another one of my best friends!) used to talk about how C.S. Lewis had it right, because friendship love is the bomb, and deserves way more attention than it gets, because romantic love far too often hogs the spotlight.

I digress. I love my friends!

EDITED TO ADD:

Jennie is writing more brilliance in my facebook messages, and I just had to write this on my blog for posterity (since I am a big dork and I love rereading my blogs...someday I will see this and coo at Jennie's insightfulness). She said that the way I am feeling is likely post-mission trip backlash, but it's the way she described my feelings that made my jaw drop. She gets me. There is no better feeling than to be known by another human being.

"I know that you're in limbo right now, and your head is just jumbled with where to go, and what to do, and wishing you were in Senegal, and loving being here with all the comforts, but knowing that you're not supposed to enjoy those forever, and wondering where to go, and what you're supposed to do, and if you'll get married, and if you even want to get married, and if you have kids how you'll pay for them, and trying not to offend anyone, but still speaking your mind."