Last week, my best friends introduced me to the Kylie Jenner Lip Kit. I have been a skeptic, but I have also been convinced it must be worth it because of the recommendations I had been reading online. I tried it. And I’ll probably never buy any other lipstick again, it’s that good. I’ll probably need to start blogging for money to keep up with the obsession. I consider it worth it. (Also, consider this the highest recommendation I can give you. Get one. ASAP.)
These girls have been my best friends for years. We’ve seen each other through the awkward stages of middle school up until now, and there really isn’t anything I keep from them. For a few years, we were in different cities, only seeing each other every few months, and talking scarcely because of college classes, life, and work. The joy of now living in the same city is for real. I can’t get enough of just how much of a blessing it is to do life with these women.
The times when they weren’t here, though, were hard. I didn’t have any close friends to depend on, and I didn’t have the female companionship I needed. So I prayed some. Not consistently, hardly enough to consider it a real prayer I feel like, but I do remember asking God for some people. Some community. Some people who I could walk through life with in different ways.
You know what blows me away? God has made it happen, tenfold. It has taken quite a bit of time. I didn’t get a crowd of women in a week. I didn’t even get women who I could walk with right away. Ever so slowly, friendships came to life. I heard the anthem of who I was in Christ, truly heard it for once, and felt like I didn’t need to hide myself from people. That I actually could be me, the woman I felt inside, not the woman I wanted to be or thought I had to become. I shed fear like a skin, and I realized the freedom there is in partnering with other women to just be with each other. To share the life we’ve got. To pray warrior-like prayers because we need each other! We’ve got so much to offer when we aren’t glancing at each other with side-eyes and comparing outfits and hair cuts.
It’s changed me. These women I’ve got are so good to me, and they probably don’t even realize it. They challenge me in glorious ways. It’s never about comparison anymore. It’s about how much I admire them and how God works in them. Getting to see Him in their lives is miraculous, glorious, beautiful.
I look at the two women I have known for 10+ years respectively, and I want to give God the biggest hug for giving me lifelong friends such as these. They have seen me through every huge moment in my life, and they’ve let me join in on their own. What a glorious thing to love and be loved by women who know me like blood sisters.
I see the women in my church, in my life group, and those who I do ministry with, and I want to hug all their faces. They have shown up. They have taken boldness in stride, even if it means just being at Bible study with me, and have taken the chance. I get to learn with these women, love others with these women, serve with these women. It becomes less and less about Sunday mornings and more and more about being the Church together. We see the same God. We love the same God. It makes this race of life a joy knowing we’re running all at once, all for the same cause.
It isn’t about numbers. Give that a rest.
It isn’t about the exclusivity of the way I make friends and keeping only the ones that seem to benefit me. (Which, I can justify that that isn’t the excuse, but I admit it. I’ve been that friend.)
I want to see the women I come across, and see them, past the whole look we all may have going for us. The Kylie Jenner lip kit lips, the shoes you’ve got on your feet. I want to see you. I want to see the Lord in you, and be your sister there. I want all the fun conversations too. I want to know what gets you fired up. I want to meet you right where you are.
If you meet me right where I am, I promise you it won’t be tidy. I’ve got junk. I’ve got a list of burdens I’m consistently dumping off at my Savior’s feet. But my goodness, come here and meet me. In the middle of all of it. Because I want you here. In my messy house, my half-finished fixer-upper, and give me a reason to praise the Lord. Because that’s what I want to do: give God the glory for bringing you to my doorstep.
I’m welcoming you, ladies. I’ve seen what God can do when I pray simple, inconsistent prayers for friends. I’m praying for bigger, for stronger, for even mightier. Join me.
JANELLE DELAGRANGE 