Genuine Friends

Congratulations you have 1,342 friends on Facebook!! How many are actual friends? Do you even know what a real friend is? Ask yourself what a real friend is.... would you still have 1,342 friends on Facebook? Doubt it..
Are you basing friends on quantity over quality or quality over quantity? Every now and then I mention the time in my life in which I was battling my life vs. myself. In all honesty the value of my life at the time.... meant very little to me. I stopped caring about others and ultimately.. myself...
During this time I continuously wore a figurative mask on my face to hide the things I did to myself and how I thought of myself.... While still dealing with personal problems, I took a week out of the summer to attend a church camp. At first I didn't really think I would feel better at the end of the week, but I kept praying I would.  One night I began to cry and a few people came over to talk to me... needless to say i'm not really the "crying-type" but with everything going on I felt as if I couldn't control it. People who were "friends" gave me strange looks and went inside... but.. a few people I didn't talk to as much came and really sat down with me... they sat for over an hour and listened to everything I had to say.... and there was a lot to be said.. 
I sat at a table as hot tears rolled down my face and my ex-boyfriend's best friend came and sat across from me... He listened and talked with me and within tears I could feel the mask being pulled from my face. Chris took the mask in which I hid behind and watched as I was exposed in all rawness. The things I tried so desperately to hide were revealed and ultimately.... accepted... 
I did not talk to him as much as others who were at the camp but he now knows me more than anyone i'm friends with. 
A few months later at his baptism ceremony I handed him a bracelet. This bracelet wasn't really something I thought would accessorize him well but... the bracelet was used to hide the scars on my wrist.  It's a symbol. I gave him it because I no longer needed it... without him who knows what my life would now look like. He is one of the most blessed kids I've encountered. 
That's a friend. 
someone who cares. someone to cry with. someone who accepts you. someone who is there even in the worst of times. 




SOMEONE WHO SEES YOU WHEN YOU FEEL INVISIBLE...


Do you really have 1,342 friends?