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Five Friends.

Something I pray about all the time for Levi is a quality group of friends when he reaches school age. I know that a lot of kids out there struggle with finding friends with good morals, nice self esteem and ones who encourage each other to do the right thing. I went to Bible Boot camp as a teenager with people who had absolutely zero Christian friends in their schools. How disheartening!

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I was uniquely blessed with a solid core group of Christian friends throughout my entire school experience. I thought it was normal, but when I learned that many kids did not have that, I felt absolutely terrible for them. My group of friends were amazing because we were always there to encourage one another and never ever felt any sort of peer pressure from other kids because we knew we all stood together. For the Lord.

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I had an entire support system in my youth group, and I knew that any one of them would be there for me if I needed them. We were all great friends and most of us had known each other our whole lives. Although I had that in my youth group, there were five of us that were best friends. We were with each other all of the time. I knew that at any given time, any of these people would be there for me to laugh with or talk to. They were quality friends. The best of the best.

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These four people made my teenage years such great times! We always came up with the most fun things to do on the weekends, always supported each other in our different activities, and for the most part, you rarely saw one of us without the other four. We could all be stuck in a rubber room together and have the time of our lives. They were just the kind of friends that they make movies about ... except, it was real life for me.

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When most of our classmates were off in a field somewhere after Prom, we were all back at my house making fun of the hideous dance moves we encountered a few hours earlier. When other kids were getting smashed at parties on the weekends, we were out playing frisbee golf, eating out at new restaurants and going to the movies. When our classmates were flinging themselves at each other trying to find some sort of acceptance, we were all single and just content with having each other!

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I have so many funny memories with these people. But, not only did we have fun together, we studied the Bible together. We prayed together. We had not only a friendly connection, but a spiritual one as well. When I look at teens now who struggle with finding where they belong, I stop and thank God for the people that he placed in my life growing up. I know He spared me from so many things because of those four. We may have stood alone from the rest of the school most of the time, but we did it together. We were a force to be reckoned with!

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I'm sure none of the five of us even realize it now, but I think we were all a big part in making each other who we are today. The Lord blessed us with friendship, comradery and a place of belonging within each other. High School is such an influential time in a person's life and often the most difficult years for many, but when you have a group of friends like this, it was a some of the most happy, exciting, carefree days of my childhood.

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When I pray for Levi's friends, I often ask for a group just like I had. Who knows, he may end up marrying of of them like I did. :)
I am a modern day homemaker with a passion for family, cooking, celebrating, decorating, travel, and memory making! The Lord has blessed me with the desires of my heart in my husband and our two sons. We recently built our dream home and cultivating a loving and happy haven for my family is where I find so much joy.

Comments

  1. Loved this post! I pray for the same for my little guy often.

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  2. Loved this post as well--solid, Christian relationships are a vital lifeline for teens!

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  3. You were, indeed, incredibly blessed to have a group of friends like that. I pray for the same for my kids. It's hard for me to even imagine, as I didn't even have one friend like that growing up. But thankfully, God's imagination is not so limited and He's able to do above and beyond what I could ever think or imagine! Thanks for sharing and giving me a more specific picture to take to prayer.

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  4. Great post! Russell looks like a baby in this pictures! How wonderful to have this legacy of relationship with these people. I pray the same thing for my kids even though two of them are grown ups. We always need Godly friends surrounding us.

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  5. I love this post! I didn't grow up with Christian friends around and even though I had friends, I always felt like I was just on the outskirts--like I was missing the essential part of being "in" with them. As an adult, I am soooo grateful to have found great, Christian people to fellowship with. It makes such a big difference!

    What a great prayer for Levi. Curious...did any of your high school friends end up marrying each other? :)

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  6. Oh my word, those pictures are hilarious! Oh my. Well, I for one am very glad my love had such a great group of friends (along with their lovely families) to hold him accountable, have fun with, and by challenged by. You five were very blessed to have each other, and your good influences on each other carried you into adulthood. Thanks for being such a good friend to my hubby!

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  7. I had a wonderful group of friends like that throughout my entire childhood. I still thank God for them every day. When life threw me a curve ball, they were the first to pray and help me when I needed it.


    Also, you look really familiar to me. I think we may have gone to the same college even though we never spoke. If you know what Ka-rip is, then I might be right. Love your blog!

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  8. YAY for us! Such a sweet post. Such cherished memories. Each of those pictures bring back many memories for us! Love you friend!

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  9. Friends are so influential in one's life, especially during the formative teenage years, like you said. I hope my future children have the same support you had!

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  10. Yay for great friends:) I especially like the last picture. Who's that girl popping up at the bottom? ;)

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  11. Definitely a blessing - I did NOT have a group of friends like that. It was very difficult. I'm glad you did and that you recognize what a blessing it was. Karlie has a group like that and we were just talking about it this weekend, how it's so cool that she has other seniors in high school that are Christians who actually live out their faith and encourage her, and how really awesome that is.

    ~K

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  12. What a great group of friends!! I love the prom pic of you and your hubs with his broken nose. I totally remember that in your love story!!

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  13. You were abundantly blessed with them! I was one of those ones in school who didn't have fellow Godly friends and it definitely made for some difficult times.

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  14. I agree with you that it is important to find a good group of friends during your teen years, as they are difficult and we all struggle. but I must say something that, well, worries me because I have realised that many people think that being Christian is just a good sing to be a good person. I was raised in the Catholic faith as most of my friends but I found out I didn't believe in any of those conventions... so you can say I'm atheist or agnostic, I just try to make my way through life in the best way possible, being a good person and enjoying every moment. I admit that my moral base is mostly Christian, but I'm proud to say that I also believe in many other moral principles from general philosofy and other religions... I don't close my mind to anything.

    during high school I had some very good friends, some of them were believers, some of them weren't. But in the ende we were all good friends and supported each other against those who hurt us. But then, we grew up and the last year some of these people, who were Christians, made something rude and mean and horrible to me and other friends. And they had their reasons but they were mean. And I found other friends who helped me and were nice. Some of them are Christian, some of them are not. We make jokes about religion, all of us, and we enjoying hanging out together after all these years.

    On the internet I've had the chance of "meeting" people of different faiths: Mormons, Methodists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians... Christians. I do respect their life and the way see daily aspects, I talk with them, I read their blogs and I "suck" the best of their philosophies, the good things. Those things are not much different to mine, except the fact that there's no God to thank for my luck, or to pray when I'm in trouble, etc. I believe in people, that's true. And it's disheartening because there's bad people all around the world: of any faith and no faith at all. I believe that we can change people to be good and I agree that some will need religion to be good and therefore happy, so I accept their choice.

    But when I have my own kids, I'll show them what a religion is and they'll have the chance to choose and learn about them and be happy with their choice. But I'll teach them that we cannot judge somebody because of their religion, and that being good has nothing to do with that. Just with the person.

    (sorry about the rant) :)

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  15. You were very fortunate indeed but I do think it is important to have both Christian and non Christian friends. Sadly my children ages 14, 11 and 9 have no Christian friends in school, being in England going to church and being a born again Christian is not popular. Even more sad is that they don't have friends from Christian families in church either as they are all girls. I'm finding it more and more difficult to get them to church and it is an increasing worry that they will just lose interest completely. Of course I believe God has a plan for us all but with no other young people to talk to and to encourage them it is not easy.

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  16. Sounds to me like you're being very judgemental of people who aren't Christian?! I choose not to be a Christian, but feel slightly insulted that you would say things like"while others were off in a field..." Really? Are you judging those who choose not to believe your set of beliefs?

    Sorry to play devil's advocate, I just find it distasteful, and if anything a little rude that you would assume those who are not Christian would do the things you suggest. You're making generalisations! That's like me claiming all Christians hate gay people....am i wrong?! Which I know to be 100% false!

    I appreciate and don't judge my Christian friends, I'd like to think you don't judge those of who are not too :)

    Have a good day!

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