They say that if you are friends with someone for 7 years, it is proven that the friendship will last a lifetime. But what if there was a break in that 7 years? Will it still last? Well, I have reason to believe it will. For me, it is because God loved me enough to allow me a second chance with a friend that changed my life.
We met in junior high. we had classes together, and were in theater together. We had the same friends, and all did the same things. She helped me through junior high crushes, and together we complained about the teachers we both didn't like. Then we entered high school and had the opportunity to go down to Guatemala to build a Daycare together.
She was the rock I could fall on when things got hard, and she strengthened my testimony so much. She always stood up for what she believed in, and was such an amazing example... There is no other explanation for what she was. An example, a light to the world. After all this and more, how can the friendship not last? But, we are girls, and girls don't always get along. Through a series of events, I found myself pleading with my Heavenly Father for her back in my life. The Lord answers prayers in His own timing. I came to a point where I thought we would never be friends again. And I grew up. I learned how to gain my own testimony, I learned to be that example she was for me. I learned to rely on my own testimony when things got hard, and I learned what it meant to be a real friend to others, the way she had been to me. It was almost like she was taken away so that I COULD gain my own testimony, and so I COULD become like she was.
Then one day at the end of our senior year, she came up to me and started talking to me. I don't remember what she said, I only remember going home and crying tears of JOY. Of all the tender mercies of the Lord, this one was by far the best one yet. I felt like the bridge was beginning to be re-built, and she had laid the foundation.
Oh how sweet was the joy! Years later, I was blessed with not only an answer to many prayers, but a brand new type of friendship. And I was given a second chance.
Have we not reason to rejoice? The Lord is SO GOOD. Have faith that all things will work out for your good, and it will. I promise!
Now this wonderful lady will be set apart as a missionary tomorrow. Together, we went through the joys of the singles ward, the opposition of deciding to go on a mission, the trouble with returned missionaries that were marriage hungry (oh boy that was fun..... not.), the peace of attending the temple, the fun times and the sad times. Now, we are both going to dedicate 18 months of our lives to the Lord. Looking back now, I can see the hand of the Lord guiding us together again, for the strength it gives both of us, and for the comfort that neither of us are alone in this endeavor.
There is no doubt in my mind that what I received last May was not just a friendship with an amazing girl again, but it was a gift from God. I have been so blessed. What we went through was no doubt necessary for each of our growth, and it changed my life. Whatever stood in our way of being friends is gone. Friendship and forgiveness go hand in hand in making something last a long time. I am so excited to see what the future holds for each of us. I'm so excited to be serving a mission at the same time as her for 16 months, and I'm so excited to have such an amazing friend again. But most of all I am so grateful and humbled to be blessed with a second chance. And this time, nothing can mess it up.
They also say that high school isn't the time to find your future husband, but the time to find your bridesmaids. Well, I found one.
Have we not reason to rejoice?
