“I can’t promise to fix your problems, but you won’t have to face them alone.” Unknown
A friend told her story about a difficult time she went through during her husband’s drinking years. Her friends supported her, but also advised her to do something for someone else. She didn’t feel like it, but she said she’d do anything to feel better.
So, my friend baked biscuits for a dozen or more neighbors, rang their doorbells, and anonymously left the goods on their doorsteps.
“With every batch I baked and delivered, I felt better,” she said.
Another friend, while going through a divorce, shopped for elderly neighbors, organized get-togethers for friends, and volunteered at a daycare. Right now I’m watching a friend who recently lost her son be there for her family and his friends.
This blog post sounds more like advice about how to help ourselves, which is exactly what happens when we console our friends.
We all have problems we could turn into excuses.
It’s so much more consoling, though, to console our women friends by following advice I recently heard, “You reap what you sow, which means you need to give what you want to get.”
“If you want help, help someone. If you want to be heard, hear someone. If you want emotional support, support someone.”
It’s consoling to our friends, as well as to us, to get away from our problems, get outside ourselves, and get into something useful. It’s consoling to be a giver instead of a taker. It’s consoling to know we’re being a good friend.
Afterwards, I usually hear friends say, “Helping my friend turned out to be a bigger blessing for me.”
We don’t do it for that reason; however, being there for each other is like a consolation prize for our pain.
Who can you console today? Go do that.
In This Together,
Kim
So true! Thank you for the reminder.
Keep them coming my dear friend.
Love
Connie