I know that this can be a tricky subject, especially on Valentine’s Day. But I don’t want to talk about romantic love, even though that can be fantastic. I want to talk about loving one another – your friends, neighbors and all those in your world.

As a kid who moved every couple of years growing up, I quickly learned the importance of being intentional with friendships. If I didn’t write letters to my friends or occasionally convince my parents to let me call long distance, those friendships wouldn’t survive the distance. I’m proud of the fact that I have multiple friends who have known since I was a kid.

Yet, as a 30 year old, even with the numerous ways to connect online with people, I’ve found that it simply isn’t as east to make new friends and nurture those relationships as it was when we were kids. We don’t live in the same neighborhood, the same dorm or even the same city.We have jobs, mortgages, families, dogs and in-laws. We work an insane number of hours, serve on boards, are leaders in our churches and presidents of PTAs. We (like most) are busy. And yet. There are few things that feed my soul more than speeding a few hours with a treasured friend.

One of my goals this year was to be more intentional with my friendships. I was recently inspired by my Pastor’s blog post where she discussed how she has intentionally cultivated a relationship with other Pastor’s wives in the area. I took that discussion to heart and recently invited three close friends from church who I don’t see nearly enough to start doing a monthly dinner club. I’m very excited to really start not letting my friendships just slip by. On this Valentine’s Day, I am so thankful for the fabulous friends who’ve made my life so sweet. I hope you all have a wonderful day and I’ll leave you with a quote and picture from one of my favorite groups of fictional friends, the ladies of Sex and the City:

Carrie: It’s hard to find people who love you no matter what. I was lucky enough to find three of them.