I look back and I am thankful...

This is my friend, Liz, and I in 10th grade. The summer before 10th grade Liz became one of the closest friends I have ever had. It is now 14 years later and Liz is married! She just got married this past weekend in Highlands, NC. It was such a blessing and honor to be there celebrating with her.

As her wedding had been approaching, so many memories from high school flooded back into my mind. I have never had a friend that I am as silly with as I was with Liz. I remember...making up silly names for each other and others like Frucci and Tutti and Pookey and Rockas...fake falling in my upstairs hallway...getting after-school detention in Mr. Smith's class because we talked too much in class ("Do be do be do...sisters" is what he would say to us)...taking pictures with peanut butter and jelly and beans and all kinds of other crazy stuff...sleepovers with the five of us staying up so late eating cookie dough and talking and laughing all night...hiding little gadgets in her stuff at Yearbook camp...snapping to the Eagles in the backseat of my Mom's station wagon on the way to school in the morning...laughing about Mr. Snoryman in my living room late at night...spending the night at her house and trying to push each other off the bed...the list really could go on and on....

I also remember more serious times like the time I took her breakfast in bed the morning after she won Pitt County's Junior Miss...I remember learning about Jesus together in our Small Group Bible Study...I remember sitting at her kitchen table one night crying because she was the friend that had the guts to call me out about my moodiness...I remember long talks about Jesus and boys and school and college and friendships...I remember going over to her house the morning after her wonderful father passed away, sitting on her bed with our friends, and witnessing her still be able to smile and laugh and tell funny stories because her faith in Jesus was so strong.

I remember my friendship with Liz. She was my one of my best friends for 3 years of high school, one of the most fun, special, and fulfilling friendships I have ever known. After high school, somewhere along the way....as more and more time went by, we gradually weren't best friends anymore. For a while, that bothered me. I do not like for my friendships to fade, especially ones that are so close. But my feelings about it have changed now. Liz and I keep in touch, and even though it's not near as often as it used to be, and even though we aren't near as close as we used to be, I look back at our friendship and I am so thankful. I love that our friendship was so fun and special, and I know I will never have another one just like it. When I was watching her and talking to her at her wedding this past weekend, I couldn't help but notice that she is the same Liz that I knew in high school...now she is just more mature, more classy, and even more beautiful. I am so thankful for the Lord's seasons of friendships. I am so thankful for my friend, Liz.