I’m counting the blessing of praying friends today!  I’m the type of person who doesn’t have a lot of really close friendships.  I am a networker of sorts, although not the extroverted kind.  Even though I tend to be fairly introverted I have a lot of connections across a huge variety of ages, churches, groups, and communities.  I’m that person who always seems to know someone you know.  In that sense I have a lot of “friends”.  But “friends” as in a group of women that I see regularly and do stuff with just for fun or stay in constant contact with?  That is not me.  Last week, however, I was reminded that God has blessed me with good friends.  The kind of friends I’m talking about here are the ones you might only talk to every few weeks but when you do have a chance to connect you dive deeply within seconds to what God is doing in each of your lives.  You share your heart and you let each other know that you are praying for one another.  Prayer connects us like that.  When we pray regularly for our friends it keeps them in our minds and hearts even when we don’t see them very often.

Last week I had two short visits with two friends, but in the hour I had with each of them God was there with us, knitting our hearts together and keeping us mutually encouraged.  One friend who is in the after-pregnancy hair shedding stage (moms, you now what I’m talking about) said she had been reminded to pray for me every time she washed her hair because the last time we had visited I had shared that I was losing so much hair as a result of something traumatic I had experienced a few months ago.  This was a friend that God had been prompting me to pray for daily as well.  I just love how God lays situations or people on our hearts.  He guides us in our praying when we seek Him.  With another friend I was sharing some amazing answers to prayer I have been experiencing, and it encouraged her as she waits on God for miracles in her own life and family.  Good friends are praying friends!  They might be friends you’ve known for decades or you might not know them on a very personal level at all.  But when God decides to knit your hearts together and prompts you to uphold each other in prayer it is an amazing and heartwarming blessing.  I’m giving thanks today for good friends…praying friends…to walk this journey of faith with!