LIVING ROOM  MEMORIES  275 

(April 5, 2010)

The best kind of friend you can have is someone who will cry with you when you cry and celebrate with you when you’re joyous. What amazing bonds can form when a friend is sympathetic to where you are emotionally!

I have three friends like that now, and what a treasure they are! How grateful I am for them!

During my last bout of struggles, a friend from church prayed with me when I was going through a particularly hard time. She seemed to feel what I was feeling and thus knew exactly how to pray. When I turned so dramatically, she felt my joy too – because she too knew what that kind of joy was like. She was able to celebrate with me. How good it is when you’re feeling overjoyed to have someone share with you in it! We need people to share our feelings with. The good stuff as well as the bad stuff. It’s good to be understood. And yet, so often we’re not. People who understand can be hard to find, especially when we most need them.

How often haven’t you felt alone with strong feelings – whether it be pain or joy – with no one available to share with? And how good it is to have someone you can call – someone who cares! I wish everyone could have friends like that. Someone to comfort them. Someone to remind them of God’s love. Someone to pray with.

I’m glad for our Living Room ministry, because here, at least twice a month, people with emotional problems can share their pains and their joys. Here we are ready to hear and to be there for each other. We have a meeting coming up on Friday and I pray that we will be in sympathy with each other – whether that means to cry with each other or to celebrate joys. I know we will be.