My little 4 year old has taken to talking about her “friends” a lot.

“Mom!!! Are my friends coming home soon?”

“Hi my friends! I want to show you my worm!”

“Mom, why won’t my friends play with me.”

What she’s been talking about are her siblings. In her little cutesie kind of way, by calling them friends, she’s been expressing how they are more than just another person who just happens to live in her home… but they are people she enjoys, wants to spend time with, and with whom she wants to share life.

Its been adorable really. And it’s had me thinking about the value of friendship in our lives. Take a few moments to read a Wednesdays with Jillene post from the archives which speaks right to my heart today. [Bonus news: Look for a special Sunday edition of Wednesdays with Jillene for Mother’s Day!]

Wednesdays with Jillene: the investment of friendship

I was given this today.

It might look like a simple penny to you. But it was so much more to me. It was a sign of investment. The financial worth of this investment may be minimal but the value of a friendship investment cannot be measured.

And this was the doubling of an investment made almost two years ago.

A simple penny of support in a dream which has me nostaligic and contemplating the true value of friendships. Friends come in many forms, there are friends I talk with regularly, the friends who pray fervently for me, friends with whom I share the funniest of memories, friends who’ve walked the lowest of valleys with me, friends who I rarely get to see but when we do it’s like we’ve never been apart…

Friendship is really beautiful.

It is the beauty of investment. Investment, not in financial terms, but the investment of a life.

Ecclesiastes 4:9–12 says, “Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.”

Who has God given you in your life to be a true friend? Take some time to let them know how much they’ve meant to you. Look for the people God has placed in your life in whom you should invest and do so whole-heartedly!

~Jillene