The Power of Gospel Sisterhood
I had a fun, out-of-the-ordinary day yesterday. I went to lunch with two friends. One I hadn’t interacted with for nearly two decades. I’ve known her since elementary school, and we played on the junior high school basketball team together. The other friend was our coach and teacher from that era.
Going out to lunch with girlfriends is fun enough, but we did much more than fill our tummies and get our social fix. We fed our spirits. For three hours, we bore our souls — and our testimonies — to each other. We laughed and cried together. Twenty years had brought significant trials for each of us — decades of singleness for one, the tragic loss of two stillborn babies for another, chronic illnesses for two of us. As we opened up our hearts and our lives to each other, it was as if time stood still — and also as if time had not really passed since we had last interacted. Our hearts were “knit together in unity and love” (Mosiah 18:21). I left filled — with a renewed determination to endure to the end, with a deep gratitude for the gospel that gives hope through difficult times, and with a deep love for these friends and sisters.
The power of sisterhood in the gospel never ceases to amaze me. I feel it when I worship with my ward sisters every week. I feel it here as we share our faith and feelings with one another. And I felt it at an Olive Garden restaurant with friends from years past. Extraordinary.
June 11th, 2006 16:41
I love get-togethers like that!
June 12th, 2006 09:06
I think this is what is missing in my life. This kind of unity with other women.
June 12th, 2006 12:31
It’s a lack that I feel, too, Tanya. It’s simply not something that has evolved in the natural progression of my life. I’m trying more and more to create it for myself. I hope you can, too.
June 12th, 2006 16:15
I’m hoping we can have some of that here.
June 12th, 2006 23:58
The Italian sodas are on my tab, ladies =)
June 13th, 2006 10:03
WooHoo, Tea! (How do you do that little accent above the T?) I’m there!
June 13th, 2006 17:24
Wasn’t there a whole thread where we discussed that accent in the comments somewhere pre-APoF?
Well, if you’re on a Macintosh, hold down the ‘option’ key and hit ‘e’, the accent will appear. hit ‘e’ again and an e will appear under the accent.
If you are on a Windows-running PC, hold down the ‘alt’ key and on your number pad hit ‘130,’ and *poof* an accent-bearing é will apear!
June 13th, 2006 17:45
Thanks, Naiah. Yeah, there was a thread, but I couldn’t remember where. Thanks for repeating the info for me.
June 13th, 2006 18:38
[…] A dear, special & unique friend just called. We had a quick chat, our own moment of Gospel Sisterhood. As brief and scattered as the conversation was, by the time we hung up not only was my heart full, my happy-meter was peaked scale-high. I felt cozy yet vibrant, peaceful yet vital. It’s a unique feeling, but one not too uncommon in my life. It was familiar, and yet I hadn’t pegged it down. Unable to account for my own overabundance of warm fuzzy, I immediately turned to my most trusted counselor in matters of all things Naiah–my husband. […]