With the sun shining brightly above us, we would run around the yard, lie out in the grass, sit on the porch talking and giggling or share a snack. Jennifer and I became best friends overnight. She moved in next door to me and it was a though we knew each other already and were just reunited. We did not waste time getting to know each other we became comfortable with one another immediately.  We would get up early in the morning and play together all day and there was nothing we could not talk about together.

One afternoon we were sitting in the grass of the backyard we shared, talking about the subject of God. Jennifer said to me that I could ask God anything as long as I prayed in Jesus’s name. She then asked me if I wanted to pray and I said yes. We kneeled together, side by side, right there in the grass and prayed to God. She guided me along the way until the end making sure I got the words correct. I did not know it at the time, but that is when my faith first began to develop. From that point on I knew how to pray to God and whenever I needed to I would kneel and pray to him is Jesus’s name.

I was about 8 at the time and I knew of God, but knowledge of prayer coming from my friend was different. We were sharing something real. Our religious back grounds were different, but we spoke to the same God in the same way, and heard back from him because of the way we prayed.  I was not too young to pray or to begin a relationship with God. What Jennifer was brave enough to do for me allowed me to have the needed power to make it through my childhood, teen, and young adult years.

Learning how to pray allowed me to be resilient during the times life ran me over and left nothing, but tire marks and debris. I had plenty of tire marks and debris over the years, but prayer got me up each time, God removed the marks, and vacuumed the debris. I did not know why God was not preventing life from running me over then, but I still prayed. Without praying I would not have been resilient throughout my life. I would not be what I am today at this moment, without knowing that God could hear me and answer my request. I am grateful that I had a friend who knew what to share with me one sunny afternoon. It was more than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I got bread for life.

When friends share their life with you it is because they care about you and they want to celebrate life with you. They will help you when, and however they can. A real friend will give you the tools you need to live, grow, and succeed in your own way. They will not use you as someone to spread out over life’s puddles and walk on top of. Good friends can save your life without even knowing it. Look for and hold on to the very best friends that God places on your path not just a person with a BBF title.