Real Friends Stalk

Real friends stalk each other!  Well, maybe not really, but real friends are intentional.  They make sure that they connect with each other, that they know what is going on in the other person's life.  Real friendships take work.  And real friends give each other grace, because we all know that being a mother means you're super busy!  Sometimes it will take me a month to actually make that phone call to my girlfriend, but they are never far from my mind.  That's the way of motherhood, just when you think you're going to get that time to call your friend the kids start misbehaving!  And you look up at the calendar and for the life of you cannot figure out how it is March because you swore the last time you looked it was November!

I will admit that sometimes I do stalk my friends.  I will call them until they call me back and I will forget what I called them for then call them back again!  When I want something I guess I make myself pretty hard to ignore.  I wasn't always such a stalker, I probably only really turned into one in the last couple of years.  I took up the art of stalking when I realized a little bit more of human nature.

Human nature makes you want to run away when life is hard.  When you are having a hard time or depressed people's tendency to is withdraw.  People don't like to talk about the things that are making them sad, the things they don't understand, their inadequacies, and the things that make them want to curl up in a ball and cry.  People think they are alone and that nobody else in the world has ever possibly felt the way they do and that there must be something wrong with them.  Pride as well stops people from reaching out to those who want to be there to stand beside you.  After all, we all have these perfect lives, perfect children, husbands and homes, right???

Nope.  Not me.  I am far from perfect.  I am always learning something new, coming up with new theories and falling incredibly short of the idealist perfect that I once thought my life should me.  But do you know what?  Imperfection is freeing.  It allows you to share your heart, to say "I've been there", to let other people know that it's okay to not have it all together.  I am human, I make tons of mistakes and what I get right is not in my power it is solely the grace of God pouring out on my life.

The greatest compliment to me is when I walk in a friends house and their floor isn't swept and they got toys everywhere and they got on a pair of sweats.  Why?  Because it means that they are finally comfortable enough with me to know that all that stuff means nothing to me.  Because they know that I love them and all the mess that they are and it means that they love me and all the mess that I am.  It's because it is real.  Life isn't pretty, life is messy and chaotic!  Out of the chaos and craziness we grow beautiful character and hearts that love people where they are because we know we've been there ourselves or could very possibly be there tomorrow.  Love is intentional, graceful and forgiving.