making friends

God has blessed me richly with many friends from different stages of my life.  I have friends who are younger than me and friends who are older than me...  I have friends in high school, college, married, single...  friends who have seen me at my best and at my worst.  Like I said, I'm blessed.  These relationships mean the world to me.

When we moved churches in the middle of last year, the thing that scared  me the most was the prospect of making new friends.  See, for all those relationships in my life, I'm not very good at actually making friends.  My list of reasons for this is a million miles long-  I'm not super outgoing.  I've never been one of those people who is comfortable talking to anyone.  I've been called "snobby" and "scary" more than a few times.  Small talk and getting-to-know you conversations can feel so forced and awkward.  Throw a kindergartner and new baby in the mix and you've got yourself a recipe to never make new friends again.

It would be so easy to take all these excuses and stay exactly where I am.  I mean, didn't I just mention all the wonderful people in my life?  But I don't want to be a person who just goes to church and never builds relationships.  The early church was filled with people who loved each other deeply; believers gathered together and cared for each other.  They helped to meet the needs of those around them.  None of that would have happened if those people had stayed in closed circles.

One of the things I want in this new year is to build relationships with these new friends God has placed in my life.  I want to pour my life into younger believers; I want to drink from the wisdom and knowledge of those who have walked a different path.  I don't want to let my fear of people's opinions to keep me from obeying God's command to "love one another."

"They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer... All the believers were together and had everything in common." Acts 2:42, 44