A dear friend of mine with her own dreams, haters, challenges, and ups and downs has been a safe place to me for quite some time. We’ve nurtured our friendship with honesty, vulnerability, laughter, and prayer. When I’m on struggle street, she’s often the first woman I call. When I fail to silence the haters and let their screams in, she reminds me to cry out to the King. When I’m nervous or scared, I usually send her a text explaining the situation and asking for prayer. She has encouraged me to pursue counseling when I couldn’t move past a hard situation. After my husband, she has been the next greatest supporter of my dreams. She’s not only part of my tribe; she plays a key role at the table of my heart. She speaks encouragement when I’m cloaked in fear, cries with me over sorrow, celebrates my victories, and, most notably, uses her skills, abilities, and passions to serve me as I reach my dreams.
After nearly a year of teaching a Bible study that she drove over an hour to attend each week, I asked her if she could tote along her keyboard to sing sweet melodies over women as they wrote their prayers in journals and shared in Holy Communion. She obliged. I taught and she sang. She did what I could not (and probably should not), making the experience for the precious women in the study that much sweeter. After that first night of schlepping her keyboard to Bible study, I asked her to come again, and for the past two years she has played nearly every time I have taught. My dream of serving women in this capacity has been possible because of her gifts and time. I could not imagine my life or dreams without her. She is woven into the fabric of my dreams, and I couldn’t be happier. I can say with certainty that without her indispensable support and companionship, I would not be the dreamer I am today.
You and I are built for healthy, life-giving friendships. Friendships where two people feel they are seen and heard in a way that feels satisfying and safe for both, with no lick of manipulation, co-dependency, fear, bullying, shaming, isolating, blaming, jealousy, or lying. I’m talking about consistent, encouraging, and vulnerable friendships that invite each of us to become the best version of ourself—the woman God intended, the woman who pursues her dreams and lives the life God created her for.
Excerpted from the book She Dreams: Live the Life You Were Created For, Tiffany Bluhm, Ó 2019 by Abingdon Press. All rights reserved. Available for pre-order.
