Easy Laugh. Easy Cry.

I've had a lot of friends in my life. Some have been the kind I expect to have around when I'm old and grey while others came and went like a whirlwind of dust on a Summer's day. I've learned that the friends that come easy, go just as easily. I don't know how they do it because I'm not that sort of person, but it's like something flips a switch and the lights go out.

I've had a friend living with me for the past couple months. We met last 4th of July, things "went South" with her significant other, so I encouraged her that a change of scenery and a fresh start would be a good thing. So she came up. Stayed with my family and I. I shared my bedroom, my space and my time with her. Never content for very long. Often looking with complaint at the things around her. Not very thankful for the good she did have in her life.  Not surprisingly, she did a few things she might regret down the road and ended up moving out and getting a place of her own.
 
We had a lot of good moments while she was here, the kind that make the days seem to stretch out longer because they're just so full of fun, and yet every day she mentioned moving out and getting her own place.
As often as she'd talk about getting her own place she would also try to persuade me to move in with her. We could be in it together. Freedom. Independence. Not having to do what Dad and Mom say. The more she tried to convince me the more I felt resolved to stay put. Practically speaking, it is expensive to live on your own. Rent, utilities, food, emergency expenses, pleasure spending, insurance... and goodness knows I've failed to list a few! Even splitting the costs with one other person is tricky. Sure, grown ups have to strike out on their own and tackle life... but for what reason? Marriage is a good one. Guys so go out and conquer the world cause it's what makes a man out of a boy. But us ladies?

Time and time again I see the women around me running out to take on the world only to incur more sorrow, a pile of regrets and a lack of contentment. They become desperate. Dying their hair, getting piercings, a better paying job, higher education, a bigger social life, and guys. It always comes down to the guys. Which is really what most gals are looking for in the first place. That one fella' who they can spend the rest of their life with.

It's a vicious cycle. Wishing for prince charming day and night leads to ending up with the first dude that comes along which (often times) leads to a failed relationship, which in turn leads to broken dreams and the loss of the heart, soul and (often times) the body. Then it all spirals downhill from there. Girls attempt to patch themselves up, covering up their losses with material changes but are never really able to heal the gaping hole in their heart. Guy after guy after guy..... cause they are desperate to be loved and to be healed.
A problem that can only be solved by stopping in their tracks, turning their life around and letting the only true Love (1 John 4:7-10) change and re-motivate them.

This is what I see my friend doing, and many other girls that I've come across. They come around me for a while for a few reasons:
Either 1)They see me as stable, kind and I listen to their problems, or 2) They know they need help and I have good advice, or 3)They can't stand that I'm not not in the same shoes and want to bring me to their level.  I don't know how much I end up helping them. I simply have faith that at some point they'll remember the things I told them (most especially the things about God and what He want's for their lives). Anyways, whatever their reasons for befriending me may be, I usually end up learning a lot from them. Mostly that I have so much to be thankful for and that I'm headed down the right path. That my parents are wise and good, that God is the most important influence in my life and that everything I do and think should be bounced off of Him first to make sure it is the right thing and the best thing.

I've narrowed it down to three simple truths:
1. There's never an easy way to do a hard thing.
2. It's never too late to do the right thing.
3. Doing the right thing is the best way to do things.

Sometimes the hardest way... the way everyone else tries to say is ridiculous, is the best way. I like how Miranda Lambert puts it in her new song, "Hey, whatever happened to waitin' your turn, doing it all by hand, 'cause when everything is handed to you it's only worth as much as the time put in. It all just seemed so good the way we had it... back before everything became automatic".

I like the way God says it the best in Galatians 6:7-10, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith."

2 Timothy 2:1,3-4 are good too.... "Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier."

“Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.”  - Theodore Roosevelt
“It's easier to maintain a good character than to recover it when it's gone bad!” - Unknown.

Easy come. Easy go. Easy laugh. Easy cry.