Two are better than One,

because they have a good return for their work:
If one falls down,
his friend can help him up.
But pity the man who falls
and has no one to help him up!

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

Tammy Tangent Tuesdays

Hello Beautiful! I hope you are having an amazing week realizing just how beautiful you are. I pray you were able to rest in God’s grace and be cleansed by His lathering of love. It’s amazing what refreshment does to a parched soul. Living in peace blossoms the true beauty within. It’s that time again, it’s Tammy Tangent Tuesdays!

God designed our lives for companionship, the need for others, not living in isolation and going at it alone. Loneliness was never a part of God’s orchestration, instead He created the beauty found in intimacy with Him and one another. We need each other! Let’s challenge ourselves this week to be a true friend with childlike intentions. Let’s share our story with another Beloved the struggles we are feeling through the lens of Truth and Trust as we embrace this gift in what vulnerability offers while being raw and candid. The healing that will come from this transparency will be liberating, but it will also bond you to the one you’re sharing with.

One thing I have learned by allowing my life to be completely exposed (and I’m talking about being totally naked here with nowhere to hide) through the transparency, rawness and complete vulnerability is we all struggle with insecurities, feelings of shame, defeat, fear, anxiety, depression, you name it! We’re all imperfect beings living in an imperfect world so why hide behind our struggles of imperfections that are intended to help us grow and become even more radiant! When we share our lives with another Beloved, it offers peace knowing someone else is shouldering the pain. This is how God turns our ashes into beauty. Living in peace blossoms the true beauty within!

When we open up our lives by sharing areas of weakness that are uncomfortable for us to talk about, it paves the way for God to bring healing and support needed to battle and conquer our darkness. We are also blessing the other person we’re sharing with because if we are opening up our hearts, that expresses to the other person that they’re loved and worthy of trust. When we share our lives and struggles with one another, it not only unlocks our fears and the suppressed pain, but it gives God the room to bring healing to that area we didn’t want touched, much less exposed.

We need community and we need each other; that’s how God designed us. Sharing our stories offers intimacy and it opens the window to see clearly through the lens of how God intended true friendships to be. No matter how old we are, there is still a little girl residing within our tender hearts who wants to love and be loved and play.

Seeing through the lens of a True Friend is acknowledging the need for others. In fact, a true friend is someone who sees the pain in your eyes while others believe the smile you’re wearing! This requires sharing the good, the bad and the ugly. You’ll be blessing that other person by sharing your struggles because they’re probably going through similar trials themselves. Trust is a treasure chest filled with golden nuggets.

This is the beauty found in connections. Sharing leads to trust. Trust leads to healing. Healing then brings peace and beauty out of the ashes. True friends make our good days better, but they also offer strength to make the hard times lighter and easier through their love and support. We just have to reach out and Be-Loved!

We all have hundreds of acquaintance-type friends between social media and through our own channels of networking. We also have friends that have been in our lives for years, yet for whatever reason, the friendship remains on the superficial side without vulnerability because of past betrayal or through gossip and hurts. Let’s embrace our friendships or even cultivate new ones enjoying the benefits of being a true friend first so we can get to a new level of deeper understanding and intimacy together.

After all, Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 reminds us: