What Happened When I Prayed for Women Friendships
If you grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, you may remember a television show called “The Golden Girls” about four elderly women and the friendships they shared with one another. I have a vague memory of watching a few of the episodes back then. Thirty years later, I appreciate the celebration of friendships between the four women on the show. I have a special appreciation and gratitude of women friendships today because women friendships weren’t always easy for me growing up.
As a young girl, I was extremely shy. It was hard for me to take the initiative and make friends. Also, growing up as one of the few Asian Americans in my schools, I felt out of place and did not fit in. During most of my childhood and awkward teenage years, it was difficult for me to make friends. As I got older, some of the women friendships in my life became toxic. There was bullying, gossip, and betrayals that put deep wounds in my heart. I longed to find women friends who were kind, caring, and loved God.
I prayed for women friendships
One day, I asked God for good Christian women friendships in my life. It was an urgent plea in my prayer. Gradually over time, God answered my prayer by placing Christian women in my life who became dear sisters in Christ. Through these beautiful friendships, I am able to connect with women who love God and who are kind and caring.
I am so thankful that we can pray together, share openly with one another, laugh and cry together. Proverbs 27:9 says, “Oil and incense bring joy to the heart, and the sweetness of a friend is better than self-counsel.” I am able to experience the “sweetness of a friend” through these God-given friendships. I share with my friends that their friendships are an answered prayer from God.
Another prayer answered
Recently, God answered another prayer request regarding a specific group of women friendships in my life. A few years ago, I was at a grocery store ordering a latte at the café inside the store. While I was waiting for my latte, I saw a group of women sitting together with their laptops on a long farmhouse style table. Seeing those women working together made me long to have women friends who shared the similar dream of becoming a writer and entrepreneur.
I prayed and asked God for Christian women writer and entrepreneur friends. God generously answered that prayer by connecting me in person and online with wonderful and talented Christian women writers and entrepreneurs who share the same heart to glorify God and bless others through their writing and businesses. I praise and thank God for these women friendships in my life as well.
Last summer, a group of close friends and I decided to meet in person outside in a socially distanced birthday party with our masks on. Prior to this party, we encouraged and supported one another as we navigated the stressful pandemic together. Our generous friend who we were celebrating the birthday for gave each of us a cute bag of goodies. To our delight, it was a pandemic-themed goodie bag with all sorts of items such as hand sanitizer and the most adorable dishwashing gloves to wash those extra dishes from all the cooking during the pandemic.
One item in the bag was a beautiful magnet she made for each of us. On the magnet she painted a rose, and with her beautiful handwriting wrote, “Thank you for being a friend.” What a beautiful and heartfelt gesture of the way she felt about our friendships. “Thank you for being a friend” is the title of the theme song for “The Golden Girls” show. We shared with one another how we would grow old together in our friendships. We also shared with one another how grateful we are for our friendships.
God’s generous and gracious answer to my simple prayer for women friendships has made me eternally grateful for the precious gift of Christian women friendships in my life today.
Meet Susan Park
Susan Park is a Christian Korean American writer who loves encouraging women to co-create with God in their creative work. She finds joy in connecting with other creative women and praying for them. She loves encouraging them through Scripture and words of hope.
She is a fiction writer and is currently working on her first novel. It is about a second-generation Korean American college woman set in the 1990s.
Susan lives in the Chicago area and is married to her wonderful husband of seventeen years. She has three lovable and kind boys.
Where to find her . . .
Begin Within is a series to inspire a year-round lifestyle of gratitude that will impact not only your own life, but the lives of your neighbors as well. Gratitude is a theme we talk about often around here because it ties so closely into other missional living rhythms. Practicing gratitude reminds to keep our hearts soft and expectant and our eyes open. Therefore, the more we embrace gratitude, the easier it becomes to truly see our neighbors and where we can join what God is already doing in our neighborhoods.
My vision for this gratitude series is to help others embrace a year-round lifestyle of gratitude that will impact not only their own life, but the lives of their neighbors as well.
If you would like to contribute to Begin Within, you can find the submission guidelines here.
Creating Ripples
If you would like to cultivate rhythms in addition to gratitude that will empower you live on mission in your neighborhood, check out Cultivating a Missional Life: A 30-Day Devotional to Gently Help You Open Your Heart, Home, and Life to Your Neighbors. This small book will help you make a big impact in your neighborhood as you learn to let missional living flow from the inside out. Get the 30-day missional living challenge free when you purchase the book.
