A True Friend

Friend:
  A person who will let you vent your stress by staying out of the way of your "rage-cleaning," and make you smile when you're done scrubbing the walls/floors/dishes to death. Someone who will not be irritated by you ignoring them for an hour while you get a grip. Someone who will listen to your problems without complaint, then make you laugh about something to get your mind off of them.

  Is this the definition of "friend" in the Webtser's Dictionary? No. But it is in my book. I'll admit it, I've been really stressed lately. With Mom being so sick, it's hard for me to be mostly running the house while Dad's working. Today, when a close friend of ours offered to let the kids play at her house for the afternoon, I thought: "Yay! Now I can clean!"
  But I actually ended up talking with Mom about some future-affecting issues, and discussing the fact that I am a control freak. Yes. It is so hard for me to accept help, because I want it all done my way-- the "right" way. Well, my friend stayed to help clean when her mom picked up our kids, and I'm ashamed to say that my first thought was, "Oh great. I wanted to just job out and focus solely on cleaning. Now I have human interaction to deal with." So I pretty much ignored her while I took out all my stress related to the past month and future uncertainty on the mess. I probably shouldn't have scrubbed quite so hard on the walls, but my wonderful friend just looked at my list and started mopping (in a different room, which was a good call on her part).
  After putting away the laundry scattered throughout the living room, scrubbing walls, painting over red marker on the walls, and vacuuming, I had calmed down enough to be civil to my friend.
  "I think you scrubbed the wall to death," she remarked. "Never get in the way of Seriah's rage cleaning. Seriously."
  I had to laugh at that. I was being ridiculous, and we both knew it. Thankfully, my friend forgave me for ignoring her, and we finished the cleaning together, and she helped cheer me up after my afternoon meltdown. I am glad that God designed us to have friends to help us like that. And I hope that I can be more like my friend, easy-going and always willing to help.

 "Your strong love for one another will prove to 

the world that you are my disciples."

John 13:35