An Unlikely Beginning

Do you have a friend? There are certain people who will be brought into your life, and years later you will look back and say, “Never saw us being friends” — then you will laugh.

That is what my best friend and I said recently after a visit. To be perfectly honest, we could not stand each other. We had both admittedly told our spouses, “I can’t stand her, she is so ughhh — I hope she never comes back.”

You see, our husbands introduced us in my front yard before my wedding. We were complete opposites of each other. Despite my best attempts to ignore my new neighbor, every time I turned around we were bumping into each other. We each were cringing when we saw one another, and out of a moment of madness I invited her and her husband to my wedding.

Down the aisle, I walked. Little did I know she would be my beam of support in years to come.

Standing Together Through Hard Times

Over the next few years, we tolerated one another, got along sometimes, and cooked out once in a while.

Then in 2003, I found a lump in my breast. She prayed for me, and it turned out to be a cyst that had to be removed. She told me I was healed by God, and it was she who made sure I had what I needed after my surgery, as my husband was too busy to look after me. Then I had a colon scare. She prayed, and it was a small polyp that was removed. Again, she took care of me. My daughter was 14 and rebellious, and she made me learn how to laugh at it and turn that situation around.

During this time my husband was drinking hard and disappearing for days. I prayed he would not kill anyone or himself, as it was his habit to drive drunk. My husband abandoned me for his friends, his drinking, and eventually for getting high. I saw my husband and two brothers — all in the course of a year — go from great men to men I no longer recognized or knew. My best friend’s husband was caught in this spiral as well. We stood together as friends, supporting one another.

It was my friend who, after my husband left, showed up with food to feed my child. She had been by earlier in the day, and it was a bad habit of hers to go through my cupboards — which turned into a good thing, as I had too much pride to tell her we were on the verge of going hungry. We had no money. That same day she showed up with six bags of groceries, and we were fed.

In 2003, I was in a wreck and totaled my vehicle. My friend was there for me.

Finding God Through a Friend’s Faithfulness

In my pit of despair, in situations beyond my control and so battle-fatigued, my friend told me about a church of truth and said that if I wanted God I could find him there. She practically led me there, even as she herself fought her own demons and battles. In her darkest hours, she was telling me of God and a church where you could feel the Spirit of God move — where people jumped and praised and worshipped in spirit and spoke in tongues.

I was scared. My fear was intense, and my need for God was deeper. In November 2003, my friend and her husband took me to my first service in a Pentecostal church. Within a few weeks I was filled with the Holy Spirit, and in December of 2003, I was baptized in Jesus’ name.

My life swiftly began to change, and God showed me the areas to clean up and I obeyed. I am by no means perfect and I am still a work in progress, for I know the potter is molding the clay to make me who I was destined to be — a child of God.

Separated, Then Reunited

As two women bound by circumstances beyond our control, we watched our lives pivot out of control. We were both by now abandoned by our husbands, left to our own recourse. Both our homes were foreclosed, and one of us ended up in a homeless shelter for women.

During this time, as I had lost my job, I had a lot of time on my hands. I would go to church daily and pray. At first I did not know how; then I began to listen, my ears were opened, and I learned from my brothers and sisters in Christ and my pastor.

I missed my friend. I was facing a serious surgery and did not know how to reach her. One day my phone rang and it was she — she had found my number. I was so happy to hear her voice. She was safe and happy and living out of town with her brother. I told her of my upcoming surgery, and she immediately made arrangements to come stay with me for one month while I recovered and to take care of me. She was a saint and waited on me hand and foot.

A True Proverbial Woman

I do not see her flaws as others do. I see her from the inside out — for her heart, for the love she shows the less fortunate. Very soon, I will be able to help her. She is going on her first missions trip to Belize in February, and I have been entrusted with her sweet lab, Charmin, her child, and will take care of her baby so she can do God’s work in a foreign country.

When I look at my friend I see a woman who has a pure heart and a love for others, and one of the most giving natures I know and have been blessed to witness. She has very little in worldly possessions, yet she always manages to give me something most times I see her. She is a true proverbial woman, looking after the interests of others before her own.

Proverbs 27:9 — “The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense.”

I have told these things to you to remind you that sometimes what we see in a person on the outside is not what God has put on the inside. Make sure you always take an opportunity to get to know a new person, look at the inside — at the heart — and give them a chance. People are not brought into our lives by chance, but perhaps by a higher purpose.

Philippians 2:1–4 — “If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others.” (NIV)

Thank you, Lord, for my best friend!