A Mom’s Prayer for Loyal Friends
By Meg Bucher
“A friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need.” Proverbs 17:17 NLT
Loneliness washed over me, sucking my energy back out with its undertow. Over and over, as the tide crept onto the beach, the scenario played around in my mind. I love friends …and it stings to lose one. Motherhood has washed all kinds of friends into my life—new people, seasoned old friends …family bonds, and mother-daughter inside jokes.
Motherhood friendships often begin in the throes of pregnancy as we bond over the preparation to welcome a new life into the world. The toddler years produce library story times and playdates, visits with grandparents and family, and the excitement of discovering a new personality as they wobble and find their way to their first steps. Yet, nothing steels our hearts as those first friends who share in the original seasons of motherhood with us. Pre-school days further connect us to our communities. We watch them connect and grow alongside classmates as we connect with families at the kids’ pickup line on Sundays after service and daily waiting in the hallway for them to bound out of their classrooms.
The days go by, and we continue to accumulate a plethora of people we are now connected to. Our time begins filling up, and we start prioritizing who our favorite people are. These relationships ebb and flow, bringing laughter and comfort as life progresses. But occasionally, loyal friends who stick by us, closer than a brother, as the verse in Proverbs proclaims. When they leave our lives, it’s tempting to give up prioritizing another relationship to replace them. I hate it when a friendship fails or falls away. But I trust the Lord more, knowing He will always have another loyal friend in wait around the corner. Keep loving each other, mommas. Life’s not perfect, nor is any friendship. Jesus will always be our most loyal and loving friend, and when we follow His lead, we will be able to see the people who have been placed in our lives to love …and to love us.
Let’s pray:
Father,
Praise You for the way You purposefully place people in our lives. As mothers, we long for loyal friends we can count on to empathize, support, and laugh with us, Lord. Help us to see the people in our lives as You see them, Father. Please help us to hold them close but loose. Let us always look to You first for all our needs, and never place that burden on a human being no matter how loyal and loving of a friend they are. Teach us, Father, to be the kind of friend Jesus is to us. Let us be outward facing, God, and self-aware, so we can be the kind of friend we pray for. Loyalty is often used as a tool to control others in our lives. Father, we want to be people who free our friends, not make them feel less than or suffocated. Help us pour our hearts to You before we lean on our friends. Remind us to prayerfully lift our friends each day, Father. Motherhood is busy and bold, full of decisions and reactions …questions and celebrations. It truly flies by, Father.
Today, we pray for loyal friends who will become as close as a brother to us. Whether different friends in different seasons or lifelong stand-bys, we pray for friends. Surround us with Your love in the form of loyal friends and teach us to be loyal and loving friends to the people in our lives, Father. Foster in our hearts to be quick to forgive, honest, kind, Christ-centered, humble, and encouraging. Convict us when we have wronged a friend, and miraculously reconcile what we don’t have the power or wisdom too. Father, when we are lonely, missing a friend who has left our lives, we ask for Your comfort and care as we hesitantly open our hearts up to friendship again. Heal our hearts from the hurt of betrayal, dishonesty, and lack of loyalty. Let us follow Your wisdom above our feelings, God. Bless our lives with loyal friends. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/jacoblund
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