With A Little Help From My Friends

If there is one thing that I have learned in my years of high school so far, it is the importance of friendship. The Bible talks about this beautiful relationship on many different occasions. Friends need to sharpen each other as iron sharpens iron, and a true friend will stick closer than a brother. This important relationship seems to be harder to find these days, because people are so concerned with their own wishes and well being that they do not know how to really care about someone else's. Once a friendship is formed, however, it is one of the hardst bonds to break. I have been blessed enough to find one of these almost impenetrable bonds during my first year of highschool.
About three years ago, I started my freshman year at a small private scohol in my hometown. I sat behind a girl named Sabrina in English class and every once in a while we would have a short conversation. On October 29th of that year, I invited her to my birthday party. I did not think she would actually show up since we were hardly friends, but she did! To this day I have not been able to figure out how we became such good friends after that time, but here we are three years later and she is one of the closest friends I have ever had. She is with me just about everywhere and almost all the time.
I have seen how important friendship is over the years as we have struggled and grown together, comforted and prayed for each other, and watched and learned from mistakes that we each have made over time. Sabrina has been and continues to be a beautiful addition to my life as she proves her thoughtfulness to me daily. I enjoy her company more than just about anything.
There are so many things Sabrina has done to make her all of thse things in my life. For instance, she "proves her thoughtfulness" by doing things like bringing soup to my house whenever I am sick and coming over at ten thirty p.m. just because I need somebody to talk to. We went to the beach together two years ago and I got a pair of sunglasses that I absolutely loved, but I lost them in the ocean! Six months later, Sabrina gave me the same glasses for my birhtday. She had to send the store pictures of me with the old ones on just to find what kind they were. She is always a phone call away when I need her and I am so thankful for that.
I have also realized that friendship can help prepare us for marriage. In our culture today, it seems like everybody believes that dating is the only way to train for this, but I disagree. In friendships you learn to be around another person a lot, and you learn to be patient when you would really rather be somewhere else. It teaches you to put another's desires before your own, and selflessly expect nothing in return. In order to be close friends with somebody, you must realize that nobody is pperfect. The other person will let you down and the will hurt you, time and time again; but when you love somebody, you do not love them despite their failures, you embrace their failures and love even more because of them.
God has blessed me with a wonderful friend that can sharpen me just like iron sharpens iron, and a girl that sticks closer than a sister. Since it is almost her birthday, I wanted to write about her to let her know just how much she means to me, and how much I have grown to love her.
Yes, I have learned the importance of friendship--and Sabrina is the one who taught me.