The other day I found myself driving in Provo, Utah. I was looking for a school. I had been to this school at least a dozen times over the years. They are a customer of mine. I'm in educational sales and have been for years. As I was driving, somehow I took a wrong turn and got myself all twisted around. I turned onto a street that lead me into an apartment complex. Actually there were a couple of complexes crowded together and soon I came to a dead end. As I came to the end of the street I realized that this area looked very familiar to me. Yes, it was next to a railroad track and it was the last apartment at the end of the row. Suddenly I realized that I was in the same place I started out in with my new wife 26 years ago. I was looking at the first apartment that we had lived in together and a flood of memories came back of those early years as a newly married couple. It felt surreal. This was a place where a new life and new dreams had begun. New lessons were being taught to me and I had felt that I was on the brink of a new adventure and the beginning of building a new kingdom that would last forever. That all changed of course many years later, but it's ok. I'm ok. Life redirected can be even more beautiful.
Prominent in those memories was another young couple that lived just across from us directly. You could open our door, walk about 8 feet and be at their door. They were literally the first young married couple we had met and little by little we became great friends. The husband became like another brother. He was just like my own brothers, full of fun, and jokes, and outrageousness. His wife was pretty, intelligent, compassionate and also easy to tease, which I did often because she was one of those people who knew all kinds of facts that you would never expected she would. She could give you detailed instructions on how to install an air conditioner for example and she would go ahead and tell you without hesitation.
We spent a good deal of time hanging out with our first friends. We used to watch the Simpsons with them. We went to church with them every week. We shared meals together and we even went on a trip with them to visit his family up in Idaho to go river rafting. We didn't live a long time as their neighbors, probably less than a year, but it was enough to keep them in our hearts all this time.
Sometimes when you go through a crisis or trauma in life, you find out who your friends truly are. This is true especially when it comes to divorce, but it can be any kind of trauma that you go through. A terrible experience will separate the wheat from the chaff in your life in terms of your friends. Some who you thought were so solid and who you loved, will turn from you in the time of your need. It's sad, but true. There are others, like my first married friends, who will stick by you forever. They don't care whether you have money or not, whether you're married or not, whether you're black, white, brown, or yellow. They accept you for who you are and will stick by you always. They will believe you. They will validate you.
Those are the kind of friends whose worth is greater than gold. It is so important to recognize them in our lives. They don't come around everyday and I believe that our Heavenly Father helps our paths cross at critical times in life so that we can be there for each other and help each other grow. Some may think that everything in life is random, but I do not. I think God cares enough about us even to send us friends to help us along on our journeys in this life. My advice is to accept every good gift. All good things come from God and you can never put a price on true friendship.
Recently, my first married friends were in town and they called me. They were only going to be around for a short time. I wanted to see them so I put off the dance I was going attend and the movie I was going to see and went and met them at a local restaurant. I was well rewarded for my time as we talked, ate onion rings, and laughed and laughed about old memories. We got all caught up on our current lives and families. I left feeling uplifted and loved. You can't put a price on those feelings either and when this life is over, we will still be friends. Honestly, is there any amount of money that would compensate us for the worth of a true friend? I think not.
So the moral of this story is this: True friends are like gold. Treat them as such. Remember that what you send out in this world comes back to you. This is true of good friends. This I know.
Upward and onward.
