My Very Best Friends

It's been said that if you can get along with your siblings, you can get along with anyone in the world.

Sisters are great. Especially when you have six of them. But along with having six sisters comes what people call relationships. 

Most folks don't realize just how important it is to have a good, solid relationship with not just your sisters, but your brothers too. 

I didn't realize it myself until about a year ago. Your siblings are the friends who will always be there for you. They won't ever ditch you. You're family! There's that strong tie to hold you together. 

But before you get that good relationship... The construction must come first. You cannot simply expect to wake up one day and you and your sister or brother are best friends for life and nothing else will go wrong. That couldn't be further from the truth. I know this to be true from my own experience. 

When I was much younger I couldn't seem to get along with anyone in my family! That's frustrating! Some of you may know what I'm talking about. You are constantly at war with everyone and no one seems to care that you are human too. :P 

But then, I realized that the reason my relationships with my siblings was in shambles was because of my nasty, ugly pride. Once I came to that realization, and I feebly tried to humble myself, the building process with my siblings began. 

The first siblings to become my best friends were my two older sisters, Stephanie and Emily. 

 

From left to right; Emily, me, Stephanie

"The Three Older Girls", as we are known in our family, are an epic trio. I have to say so myself. We go almost everywhere together and we share the common thread of being the three main singers in our family's singing ministry. We have a special relationship between the three of us. We trust one another enough to spill our guts to each other, and we know that when we share our struggles we will get sound advice. It's quite awesome how close we are. These two girls are my treasured best friends. I know that we will carry on this special relationship even after we are all gone from the house and married. 

I have to admit though, we have not always been that way. To make you feel better, we use to be terrors with each other. It's not like we hated each other, but we certainly were not the best of friends. But as each of us has gotten older we have grown closer. As a result we have each made an effort to strengthen and build each other up. 

My other siblings fall into place after. :) 

MacKenzie would be next. She's my best friend as well. Our journey into best-friendship-hood has not been exactly the easiest road to travel, but we are slowly but surely making it to the glorious land of best friends. We have our occasional spats of course; you can't escape those lovely little things. They will arise while you are growing together. The trials and mini hardships are what makes your relationship stronger. 

Me and Corrie

Corrie Beth is my newest best friend. Corrie and I have a sad history. Well it's sad to me. We both really didn't like each and therefore a lot of problems rose between us. It was mainly my nasty pride. And I mean it when I say that. But I've come to realize that Corrie needs me to be her best friend. She is at that age where she is trying to figure out just who she really is. With that stage comes the need for a close friend. And the best candidates our your siblings. Trust me, I know. :) 

So, yesterday morning, we had a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of tea party out in Mom's herb garden. I wrote Corrie a little note the night before saying that she needed to be down at mommy's garden by six the next morning. 

I got up at 4:30 and frantically scrambled together some tea, pretty china that we have, a small table, a cute table cloth and runner, (I'm not going to tell you what it really was.) and some tasty little treats. 

I ended up having to wake her up, but it turned out that her tardiness was a blessing. 

She was thoroughly excited to be having this tea party with just me. You see, the younger children put us three older girls in this category all by ourselves, as we are "The Older Girls". This status means we are somehow more special than the rest of them~?. Not sure how that works, but that's how their precious little brains figure us in. When one of us Older Girls pays attention to one of the Little Ones, it makes them feel really special. Corrie told me she felt special because of what I was doing. She also told me (and this threw me for a loop) that I am her ideal. She looks up to me! She is always trying to figure out how I do this, and how I do that. That both scared and thrilled me. Imitation is the best kind of flattery. But the biggest responsibility that comes with having an admirer, is you MUST set a good example. Corrie told me she is watching all of us Older Girls and learning from our mistakes. I'm glad I'm saving her the trouble. :) But she is so very wise to be doing that. 

Anyway, when we were done she claimed me as her best friend. That made my day right there. 

Sam, Isaac, Destiny, Michael

These sweet young'ins are my baby-cakes. We are still in the process of thinking about building our relationship, well they are, I'm not. They are a little bit harder to get along with, but that's okay. I understand that they don't understand just yet how important it is for us to be best friends. We're still working on it. :) 

I hope this post has encouraged you to build your relationship with your siblings. I would enjoy hearing your experience in this area. :)