Great Is Your Faithfulnessનમૂનો

Faithful to Bring the Right People

Finding true, trustable friends who will "go the long haul" is among one life's greatest challenges for humankind, and for me, has been a lifelong goal. For whatever reason, I have personally craved deeper relationships over the fun-for-the-moment connections for as long as I can remember. I was the kid the teacher selected to befriend the new student and show her the ropes of life at Harvest Hills Elementary School. Inevitably, I would introduce said new kid to my current friends, only for them to draw her into the circle and leave me on the outside. And before you start feeling sorry for friendless little Bridgette, let me encourage you: I have been blessed with some of the best of friends along the way. But they've come often in seasons and, all the more often, for reasons that God ordained at different mile markers of my life's journey.

In high school, I had a few friends who were fun to hang out with, but in the fire of my junior and senior years, the Lord brought four girls who loved and supported me, and lived for Jesus alongside of me in an otherwise formidable section of growth. Through my church's fellowship, I met and connected with students from across our state who loved Jesus and felt called to ministry, much like me. While we didn't see one another every day, the times we shared at youth camps, annual youth conferences, and in ministry touring groups solidified the call of God on my life and many of those friends are ministry colleagues of mine and my husband's to this day.

College life held some of my loneliest seasons, despite the loads of fun I shared with groups of fellow students on campus and on the road. But in the moments when I needed them the most, someone would show up and keep showing up, cultivating core trust and developmental ideologies that have grounded my entire adult life thus far.

People who would worship with me, cry with me, laugh with me, hold me accountable, sing at the top of our lungs in the car on a study break...

As I look back over the decades of my life, I marvel at who God has brought to my life at just the right time along the way. Sometimes there were years where I walked through arduous experiences solo. But at just the right time, Haley showed up to meet me at the mall with our firstborn girls in their strollers. After she moved several hundred miles from me, our friendship transitioned from strollers at the mall to phone calls in the school pickup line.

When I desperately craved mentorship, God brought Pam my way, a woman I've known since I was a preschooler. She and her husband are a few decades beyond me and my husband and her call-it-like-it-is candor cuts through the stubbornness of my own perspective.

Desirous of friends that I could meet up with for coffee or lunch locally came through a myriad of lanes--some from my home church, and others from local ministry wives who were on the hunt for the same support, laughter, and hot beverages. Some of them have become like sisters, carrying burdens with me in times of great loss and celebrating victories as though they were their own.

The ultimate friendship is that which we find in the person of the Holy Spirit. But He also uses people to provide community and fellowship. God is faithful to bring the right people at the right time.

Dig a Little Deeper

If you find yourself in a lonely season and are looking for deeper, more profitable friendships with fellow believers, ask the Lord to bring the right people into your life. It may be that He asks you to let go of a few of your current friendships that are detracting from your life to make room for the right ones He has for you. Seasons of friendship may require you to be that friend to someone else who needs it. Be open as the Holy Spirit guides you in friendship- and relationship-building. Even Jesus needed friends!