With a Little Help from my Friends

We have some dear, dear friends who live a few hours from us with their girls in a home they are restoring to be a respite for the weary. We don't get to see them as often as we would like, but when we do, they love on us like Jesus would. We try to get down to see them on Groundhog day each year (because what other holiday would you spend with friends?), and this year was no exception. We were looking forward to this trip for weeks. Not only were we getting to see people we love, but we also were going to be around the kind of friends that invest in and fill us through the fellowship that was described in Acts. They pray over us. They speak encouragement over us. They laugh with us. They cry with us.

We all need friends like this.
More importantly, we all need to be friends like this to others.

Our trip did not go as smoothly as I had imagined it would in my head (do they ever, mommas?). Our almost two-year-old decided she didn't want to sleep at night and our 6-month-old decided to pick up her slack when she finally did fall asleep. We got about 4 hours of sleep during the entire three days we stayed there.

This lack of sleep took a toll on my health and my mental faculties. My anxiety is triggered by sleep deprivation and by Friday, my skin hurt to the touch, my chest was tight, and I was achy all over. Anxiety attacks galore! However, I'm a mom, and we don't really get sick-days. Oh, did I mention said 6-month-old is teething and continued to not sleep through the night the following 5 nights after we returned from our trip? I didn't?

Through all of this exhaustion, I was also trying to gear up for a fitness challenge group I was hosting on Facebook for about 25 ladies. I was trying to put the group together, make videos where I needed to look cute, and make sure everyone had everything they needed to be successful. I love what I do, but I would have given anything to shut off my computer, tuck my kids into their beds, and run away to NapLand for a few days.

One of my sweet friends from the challenge group sent me a private message after reading apology after apology for why I was getting everything together last minute. She asked how she could help. She prayed over me and my family and even offered to drive 4+ hours with her two kids to give me an afternoon off. She was sincere, full of "I've been there" grace, and genuinely wanted to love on me during a trenches moment.

We all need friends like this.
More importantly, we all need to be friends like this to others.

Galatians 6:2 calls us to "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." Jesus demands we love like this.

It's sometimes (always) difficult to see outside the chaos of our own day-to-day lives, but I challenge you to be more aware of ways you can love on your fellow moms and sisters. Do they need a kid-free afternoon to actually purchase everything on their grocery list? Do they need a surprise caffeine fix to help them through an afternoon that seems to go on for weeks? Is there some way you can fulfill a need they are afraid to ask about?

Be that friend.

Molly is a worshiper  of Jesus, wife to her best friend and mama to two tiny humans. Along with those titles she is a health and fitness coach and nothing gets her spirit soaring like teaching women to love and appreciate their bodies the Lord has given them- no matter what  the world tells them to the contrary.