Praying for Friends

My husband and I moved to our current home in 2010. Though we loved our former community, my husband’s patience with his hour-long commute was running thin, and as our family expanded to include children, we wanted to prioritize time together over time spent in the car.

That’s how we found ourselves moving to a town that’s a fraction of the size of our previous city, away from our family, in the dead of winter, with an infant at home.

Needless to say, we were a little concerned that opportunities to meet others would be few and far between. Individually, we had friends that we continued to lean on. But as a couple, we had only a few friends with whom we really connected, and none of them lived close to our new home.

Sometimes it feels like friendships should come easily or that we shouldn’t have to put a lot of effort into “finding” friends. Yet as we settled into our home and community that winter, we realized that expecting friendships to fall into our lap wasn’t going to work. Knowing that we needed to do something different, we resolved to start praying for friends.

Together, Tim and I began to pray regularly for godly, wise friendships with people we could count on. The Word of God says that when we come to him with our requests, he hears them. Within a few months, God answered our prayer in the form of two couples from the church we began attending in the spring of that year.

Nine years later, I consider these couples to be lifelong friends and a true godsend. We’ve prayed together, volunteered together, had fun together, and even traveled together. We’ve encountered challenges and celebrated the milestones of life. Yet I truly believe that those friendships may not have happened without our intentional prayers, whispered in faith to a God who sees and cares for us.

Today’s Act of Friendship: Take the time to pray for friendships—either current ones you already have or new friendships you may be seeking.