My Biggest Cheerleader

Last week my dear friend, Sarah, came to visit. I wrote an Admiration Monday post about Sarah a few years ago, but I can't help telling you a little more about this dear friend as I process through our time together. I think everyone needs someone like Sarah in their lives.  

Sometimes I call Sarah my biggest cheerleader. Even though I have a lot of people in my life who support and believe in me and my abilities, I feel like Sarah is always the most consistent and most honest.

She believes in me and in my abilities unwaveringly. She see's things in me that I don't even see in myself. But she isn't blind to who and where I am now. It's like she really see's me as I am now AND as I will be (it never seems to be a “could be” with Sarah it’s always a “will be”).

Once a few years ago Sarah gave me a gift that I will never forget. The gift of a name. Of calling me all the things that she saw in me.

She gave me a box of personalized business cards. They were simple and beautiful with just my name and my blog on them. And then at the bottom of each card was a word: Pastor, Artist, Writer, Blogger, etc. Each card said something different. Even things that I didn't believe I would ever be Sarah believed I already was. And she called me them.

There is something really beautiful about having a friend like that.

While she was here I got to do my first official public speaking. I spoke in two elementary chapels at a local Christian school. It was really a wonderful experience and I enjoyed it so much. But best of all was that Sarah got to be there - the friend who had seen that ability in me so long ago and believed this dream for me got to be there as I took my first fledgeling steps into it.

Sarah also did something else for me while she was here - she broke through my writer's block. She read the first three chapters of the memoir I'm writing and gave me some very honest feedback.

Her comments were like balm for my uncertain soul and yet also like lighting a fire that had dwindled. She gave both positive and negative feedback - always with gentleness and love, always with the firm reassurance and belief that I can and will do this.

She believes that there is a story worth telling here and that I can tell it. But, she believes in my ability too much not to be honest and push me forward where I need pushing.

Do you have a friend like that? A friend who knows your deep dreams. A friend who see's in you potential that you only hope is there and calls you forward into that potential. A friend who believes that you are great and that you can do great things. If not, get one.

There is something so precious, so valuable, so helpful, in having someone cheer you on.

I hope I can be for at least a few people what my friend, Sarah, has been for me.

Rejoicing in the journey, Bethany