Friendship

SO, yesterday my best friend Steph reported to the Provo MTC to begin her mission to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Canada, Vancouver mission. It was such an important day because it is one that Stephanie and I have been talking about almost as long as we have been friends (6 1//2 years and going strong!!)

Naturally, Steph leaving for the MTC has resulted in a lot of nostalgia as I have been reflecting on the ways that her friendship has influenced my life. Here's the short-list version of the lessons our friendship has taught me over the years:

• I should be confident in myself. 
• Modesty and integrity are as valuable as they are rare.
• An eternal perspective is KEY to getting through life's challenges.
• Education is a wonderful, and invaluable experience and something we should pursue throughout our lives.
• Sometimes you just need a good cry, and that is totally okay.
• Disney movies are acceptable for every age group. 
• Family will always hold the trump card. (family>literally everything else)
• The only thing as important as family is a testimony of Jesus Christ and his gospel (which is centered around families so its all basically the same thing).

Like I said, this is the short list. Reflecting on these lessons has made me think even more about the importance and value of having good friends. Over the past few years I have been blessed to meet, interact, and become friends with SO many incredible people who have uplifted me and helped me to stay centered on what is most important in life. This is because in junior high I made the decision to surround myself with people who would uplift me and help me to achieve my physical, emotional, and spiritual goals. People who would not try to tear me down or influence me to do things I was uncomfortable with doing. It was this decision that helped me to make the friends that have been there to teach, support, and love me as I make defining choices in my life. Those priceless influences have had a drastic affect on my life and the person who I have become. 

Thinking about my friends and those who have been such an example to me has led me to think about the greatest example of friendship that ever graced this big blue planet, and the greatest friend I have been blessed to know in my lifetime. The Savior, Jesus Christ.

In John 15:15 Christ says this "Henceforth I call you not servants...but I have called you friends." How amazing is that? The most powerful and loving man that ever walked this earth called us His friends. We hear all the time how Christ is our brother, and that implies an incredible amount of love and holds a whole other set of amazing implications that I could write a whole other post about, but I digress. Sometimes when we think about siblings the notion comes to mind that there are times when we love our siblings just because they're family and that's what you do, times when we think "yes, I love them...that doesn't mean I have to like them right now." (Not to say that I don't love my siblings because I SO do, I wouldn't trade those nuggets for the world, but ask any one of them and they'll tell you what I mean.) There is something different about the love between friends though, a friend is someone who you are in no way obligated to love or show patience for, it is someone who you choose to love. When the Savior called us his friends that shows that not only does he love us because we are His family, He chose to love us because we are his friends. This powerful love that Jesus Christ had for us is summed up very well in verse 13 of the same chapter of John (ch. 15) "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." 

The Savior did just that. He called us his friends, and then laid down His life to prove it. And we learn in Alma Chapter 7 that He did a lot more than that; He suffered pains, afflictions and temptations. He took upon himself sicknesses, infirmities, sins, and death. All of it. Because He loved us. And because of that infinite love, which surpasseth all understanding, He wanted to loose the bands of death from around us, He wanted to understand EXACTLY what we would go through so he could have perfect mercy and the ability to assist and support us perfectly according to our personal and individual infirmities. He wanted to provide a way for us to return to the presence of our Father in Heaven, having our sins washed clean. So that someday we can stand before our maker and tell Him that we did all that we could and He will say "it is well." And in that moment, our joy will be full. This is the purest act of friendship that was ever performed, and He who performed it is reaching out to us and He wants to be our friend through our entire lives, because not only is He Alpha and Omega, as the apostle Jeffrey R. Holland stated; He is Alpha through Omega. If we allow Him, He is there through every single step of the journey until we are returned to our home in heaven. 

The friends I have been blessed with in my life have been incredibly influential in my decision to serve a full time mission. They have encouraged me to make good decisions and have helped me to develop a relationship with the greatest friend I have ever had, my Savior Jesus Christ. May we all take advantage of the opportunity we have to be His friend.