The Value Of Female Friendships In Every Season
Throughout our college years and our twenties, my friends and I got together each year in February to celebrate one of our favorite holidays. Not Valentine’s Day—Galentine’s Day.
At this point, Galentine’s is pretty widespread, but for those who haven’t heard of it, Galentine’s was first introduced as a fictional holiday on the sitcom “Parks and Recreation.” In the show, Leslie Knope gathers together all of her female friends on Feb. 13 and celebrates their friendship with waffles and speeches. The idea has caught on quickly and spread far beyond the show.
Until recently, I have spent the majority of my life being single in February, so Valentine’s Day was only exciting due to the half-priced chocolates available the day afterwards. However, Galentine’s Day was a blast. Some years, the celebration turned into a sleepover with us staying up late to talk and laugh and eat sugary baked goods.
Despite the emphasis our culture puts on romantic relationships, strong friendships are vital. This is just as true whether you are married, dating or single. Our female friendships are something we should be grateful to experience. Those bonds aren’t just placeholders for the romantic relationships we may hope to have in the future. God has placed those special women in our lives for a reason. Our female friendships are just as much a gift from Him as our romantic relationships are.
We should recognize how our friends love and support us and make sure we are showing that same love and support in return. Colossians 3:23 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord...” Cultivating friendship requires work and deserves attention in our lives no matter the stage we are currently in.
While we are single, our friendships allow us to be vulnerable with others in a safe environment. Those friends build us up, improve our lives and pray over us. While we are dating, those friendships help us keep our priorities in line. While we are married, those friendships keep us from placing pressure on our spouses to be absolutely everything to us, which is too much to ask of one person.
We shouldn’t limit our appreciation of our female friendships to just one day a year, but we should make sure that our friends know that we value them and what they bring to our lives. It doesn’t necessarily have to be with the normal traditions we associate with love in the month of February. It just needs to be intentional.
After all, people are called to love. Jesus says in John 13:34:
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
Love takes many different forms: love between spouses, love among family members, love for our neighbors and love for our friends, among other ways. Let’s make sure that when we are focusing on relationships, we take time to appreciate the relationships we have with our friends. It’s easy to overlook those friendships when it seems like everyone only cares about romantic relationships, but those friendships were placed in our lives by God and deserve our attention, too.
How are you making the space to appreciate the friendships God has given to you?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elizabeth is an educator at heart. So far this has taken the form of a camp counselor, a museum assistant, and currently a middle school teacher. She loves to watch people grow and learn. You can read more of her writing at her blog Chronicles Of A Southern Belle.