These ladies are my Sistas. Aren't we cute? I hesitate sharing pictures of us together, because inevitably it hurts the feelings of other Sistas whom we love, who end up feeling left out or excluded when the seven of us get together.
But the thing is, we seven have a very deep bond that hasn't happen overnight. It happened over years and years of walking together, even when we have moved miles apart. We text, email and call each other daily. We are vulnerable with each other. We share our fears, failures and weaknesses freely...because we are safe. But the thing is...relationships on this level take work! They really do! They require openness. They require time. They require commitment. They require grace. These kinds of relationships are not something that we can ever take lightly. I cherish every one of these ladies. I trust them with my heart.
We have walked with each other through everything imaginable. We have cried with each other, laughed with each other, danced with each other, and laughed-till-we-cried with each other. We have prayed ourselves and our families through divorce, marriage, death, birth, addiction, jail, danger, accidents, surgeries...you name it, we've held each others arms up through it. We have grown to truly love our Sistas' families as our own, even those whom we don't know well or haven't even met. It is quite amazing, really.
We're the kind of group who knows we can call each other any time in the day or night and find the love and prayers needed in that moment. We are available for each other. We not only listen to the stories of others, we find the courage to share our own. We have been through too much to be fake. We have sat in our pajamas together in the morning, looking our worst...and attending weddings together in our Sunday best. It doesn't matter! Because after all of these years, we no longer see our outsides...we are too focused on our hearts.
The growth experienced in a group like this is incomparable to anything one might experience in a corporate church setting once or twice a week. In fact, our growth happened when this group began to realize that there was so much more to God and His Kingdom...and we wanted it all. We stood together when manifestations of the Spirit began to mess up our paradigm. We learned to love everything that God has to offer us. We have washed feet and wiped tears and massaged shoulders and laid awake at night listening to each other snoring. I have learned more about God from each of these ladies than a lifetime of Bible teachings and note-taking could have taught me.
We have walked through life together arm in arm, loving each other...warts and all. Instead of picking at the warts we see on each other until they bleed...we applied the balm of love and watched them heal. We've been patient, kind, gentle, and grace-full. It is a sisterhood indeed.
The older I get, the more I realize that God puts people together to share life with each other, because this is our purpose. This is how we discover the riches of His Kingdom.
So, I share this picture apologetically. The relationship I have with these Sistas doesn't diminish those that I have with other Sistas...it only enriches them, and every other relationship I have in my life.
This is my family. This is my church.
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