A Friendship Blessing

 When I joined CollegePlus!, I was not expecting to meet any friends through it.  In fact, I was expecting no one to understand why I would choose this path to earn a degree and for it to be quite lonely.  However, I was quite wrong.  I've received several friendships through the CollegePlus! forums.  This was new for me; I'd never done any social networking before; never blogged, no Facebook, no chat rooms, nothing.  As I wrote my introduction on the forums, I was still only expecting to become acquainted with others who were traveling down the same college road as me.  I quickly realized how wrong I was.

 The friends I've made may be scattered across the country, there are some even out of the States.  But there is one thing that I am sure will make these friendships last.  We are sisters in Christ.  Since I'm hundreds, even thousands of miles away, its quite hard to go out for lunch or coffee or a movie.  You can't just call them up and say, "Hey!  Wanna get together?".  These friendships have one foundation; and it's not "hanging out".  It's Christ.  From the beginning, these friends and I have exchanged prayer requests, Bible verses, discussions on what Christ is doing in our lives, and even praying together.  Yes, we've talked about what we like to do, talked about our families, but Christ has always been a topic we go back to continuously.  Christ is the one who has built these friendships strong and they were made to last.

"...there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."  ~Proverbs 18:24

 On March 8th, I found out my dad had to take a trip out of state for business on the 15th; the following week.  When I found that out, I bounded to Google Maps.  It turns out, my friend Laura was only 3 hours from where my dad needed to go!  (< That exclamation point was not even close to how many I felt like writing.)  I quickly called Laura and that night, I think I fell asleep smiling because I was smiling when I woke up.  God was allowing me to meet one of my college friends, and I was so thankful and excited.

 So, after less than a week of planning, many texts, and a lot of excitement, my dad, brother, and I were on the road.  On Thursday morning, I got to meet Laura.  Not just in an online chat room where we'd met the first time in person.

 Laura's family was so generous and I stayed with them from Thursday to Sunday morning.  I had so much fun!  During our three days together, we talked, played games, went for walks, and watched movies.

 My favorite part of the whole weekend, however, was not something we did.  It was something I felt.  When I first got into her car, I felt like we were old friends who just hadn't seen each other in a while.  There were no awkward moments, not even in the silence.  It was last summer when we first met in the chat room on the forums.  And we'd had several conversations in there since then.  Very...memorable ones. :)  It was just in January that we actually started talking together on the phone.  We studied Introductory Sociology together which was very fun when we had our phone calls to go over practice tests.  I am very thankful that God sent Laura to be my friend.  Lord willing, we'll be able to get together again someday.

 Sunday morning, we went to church and then headed out.  It was kind of hard to say goodbye after such an amazing weekend.  At first, I don't think it set in that we lived 11+ hours apart.  But it certainly did when I got home.

 "Friends are friends forever if the Lord is the Lord of them.

And friends will not say never, cause the welcome will not end.

Though it's hard to let you go,

In the Father's hands I know,

That a lifetime is not to hard...to live as friends."

~"Friends" by Michael W. Smith

This week I'm thankful for...

231. being able to meet Laura in person

232. safe travels over the weekend

233. video call with some CollegePlus! friends

234. balloons and Sharpies

235. tiny binders for index cards

236. quiet reading time

237. sticky notes

238. health

239. texts from my mom 

240. long walks

 Love,

   Sierra