For worthy friends

Part of the fun of going to Colorado was that I got to stay with my friend Brenda. She is wonderful in every way. I think of her more as a sister. We met in Texas and figured out that we should have crossed paths long ago. We share the same third great grandfather. She graduated from the same small high school in Arizona that my mom did, and we both went to BYU and married guys who paid for medical school by serving in the military. We have both lived in Kansas and Colorado, but at different times.

Brenda is tall and beautiful. In her mid-forties, her hair still grows out of her head a beautiful natural blond that other people try to replicate chemically and never quite achieve. She has quiet, thoughtful ways about her and is a friend to people from many different walks of life. She has six of the sweetest kids I have ever met and is raising them to be remarkable, thoughtful, well-educated, good-humored and good-hearted people that can have a conversation with anyone. Even her five year old.

Some of the things I watched her do while I was there:
-sew a Homecoming dress for her sixteen year old.
-help her son who is away at college study for a test.
-nurse a sick seven year old back to health.
-make a bunch of Christmas crafts at a Relief Society activity.
-bring a friend she met at her kids' school to that activity.
-conduct the ward music AND the ward choir.
-make a bunch of meals for me and her family with seemingly little effort, including a four foot long sub sandwich.
-ask a friend of hers to give me a shot in the middle of the night.
-consider house plans for a lot they just bought. (Her priorities were function, value and resale value.)
-welcome 2 extra, stinky, energetic, 11 year old boys home for fun after a scouting activity.
-bring her whole family to cheer on their 13 year old in her first volleyball game of the season.
-drop everything and take me places at inconvenient times.

And she does it all with grace and a smile--even when she hasn't had enough sleep. I LOVE her. I love just knowing she is there, doing what she does, but I feel particularly blessed to know her personally and count her as one of my friends.

When I got home, I realized I am similarly blessed with friends here who inspire me. In particular, my friend Heidi, who watched Willa and Wyatt while I was gone, cheerfully ran the Primary sacrament meeting program I was supposed to, ran a half-marathon, and helped her sick son recover after throwing up as he stood to pass the sacrament. (Gross, huh?!) Oh, and she also interviewed for two jobs and brought my family dinner the night we got back. She regularly saves me and acts like it is no big deal.

Then Tuesday morning I got to walk and talk with my friend Laura, who is every bit as good and amazing as the best of my friends. I love walking with her because we talk about things of consequence. How to best serve in our callings. How to be a good wife and mother. What we have been reading in the scriptures. Our impressions of General Conference. I always leave her happy and inspired. She radiates love.

I left that morning humming "Each Life That Touches Ours For Good".

What greater gift dost thou bestow,
What greater goodness can we know
Than Christlike friends, whose gentle ways
Strengthen our faith, enrich our days.

(LDS Hymns, p. 293)