I checked my email as soon as I woke up. Then I made breakfast and checked it again. Had my devotional time and checked it again. Ran some errands and checked it on my phone. When I got home, I checked it once more.
I sensed the Holy Spirit nudging me to pause and ask myself, “Why do you keep checking your email?”
I wasn’t sure if it was God or me answering, but my thoughts intertwined with His Spirit whispered: You keep coming back because your heart longs for connection with a friend.
Yet no matter how many times I checked email, it was never enough to satisfy my craving.
With a busy schedule at work and home, I’d cut back on my time socializing with neighbors and hanging out with friends. Although I hadn’t completely cut out my friendships, my face-to-face connection time had been reduced to a minimum. I realized I’d let the pendulum swing too far and now I was checking email repeatedly, trying to fill a God-created need for relationships with a white screen and black alphabet keys.
That day as I sat in front of my screen for the fifth time, Jesus revealed the source of my incessant email checking and reminded me I am created for real-life connections.
I need to fill that lonely place in my heart with friends I can share life with — in person.
I know friendships are not easy to build. They take time and most of us don’t have enough of it. But in this age of technology, I think it’s really important to evaluate and balance connections that are screen-to-screen rather than face-to-face.
So, Im getting intentional about pulling away from my computer, phones and television to intentionally carve out time for friends. We all need those times where we can meet in person to share what’s going on in our lives.
Jesus needed face-to-face connections, too. He surrounded Himself with intimate friends — first His Father, then close friends like John, Peter and James, and then the other disciples. Through His example we see how important it is to satisfy our craving for connections by spending face-to-face time with friends.
An Invitation JUST FOR YOU!!
What do you think about taking time to pull away from your computer, and the stress of everyday life, to connect with a friend on a Girls Getaawy with me and Melissa Taylor of Proverbs 31 Ministries? We would LOVE for you to join us on the Girlfriend Getaway Cruise in October! Here’s a few details and a fun video where I get to tell you more… Hope you’ll watch it ’cause it just might be possible that this little get away is just what your heart needs!
To find out more, visit the Girlfriend Getaway Cruise website!
Also, when you book your cruise you will receive a one night stay at the luxurious Buena Vista Palace Hotel & Spa for FREE. Each stateroom will receive one hotel room for Wednesday night, October 2nd. You will be good and rested for our fun cruise adventure! Remember, use the code “Proverbs 31” you will receive $100 off the entire package! Can’t wait to sail the high seas with YOU!
Enter to Win a Girlfriend Gift Pak {which includes 2 copies of my book, a Starbucks gift card and set of pretty note cards}! To enter, let me know your thoughts about the cruise, one money-saving or money-making idea that might be a good way for us to get the money to go, and who would you go with if you won a trip!?
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This cruise sounds so wonderful. I would invite my friend Sheri to go with me if I won. She and I met at Divorece Care this winter. She and I have both been trying to make sense of our lives and our faith as our marriages of more than 30 years (each of us) have ended.
Thanks for your consideration. Have a wonderful time.
God Bless.
I so wish I could go. I went last year and met Melissa and Lysa personally. It was a wonderful cruise and I got to meet a new friend that we continue to communicate even though we live hundreds of miles apart. My heart will be with you on this cruise. I would bring my best friend Lisa with me since my daughter has a new baby and couldn’t make it. Blessings.
I would so love to go!!! Right now, surrounded by snow, it sounds like paradise!!!
To save for the trip, i would put an extra 5 dollar bill away after every time out of the house!
Who would I take??? That is a hard one, my friend Jen or any of the ladies in my Bible study group.
My thoughts are this cruise would be Amazing!!! I wish i could afford to go, i would love to meet other women & just share our Love for God….I love that idea…Girlfriends in God…So beautiful. If i brought someone it would be my closest & dearest spiritual girlfriend nicole. She is Amazing & i know she would love it! Shes my <3 friend.
would love to go on a cruise and I would either take my friend Debbie, Lin or sister-in-law Alice! would bwe hard to choose!
Have never been on a cruise. Surely could use a sunny vacation right now 🙂 Something to think about.
Will see.
It sounds like a lot of fun. I’m always thinking about how much fun my best friend and I had when she was alive. Ive been missing her now for almost 5 years. We were best friends since we met in high school, 11 years before she passed away. And even though I miss her I don’t grieve because I know she’s happy and someday I’ll see her again. I often think about how valuable her friendship was to me, this kind of friend the Bible talks about as more precious than gold. I feel that these sorts of friendships don’t come around often in life. I long for quality not quantity more than anything. I pray for a friend, and wait. It takes longer now as a wife and mommy of 4 to build these kind of relationships, but I’m still hopeful. At just the right time God will come through. I feel like he wants me to focus on my friendship with him first. If I could go on the cruise I’d take a fun girl I’ve really clicked with, Angie. I think my husband would help me save in our budget each month. I would try to sell some unused items on Craigslist or something like to earn a little extra.
My best friend and I have talked about taking a cruise together in celebration of our life long friendship. We’ve been thru so much together; teen years, first boyfriends, single parenting, raising our kids. Now we’re free to do this. What a blessing it would be. My parents used to save every dollar bill with a K on it along with cans they returned for refund. It added up.
I would love to go! I would either take my East Coast BFF Lauree, or my West Coast BFF Sara who I no longer see since she moved to Cally. I miss my friend and sister in Christ. 😉
Oh to dream!!! I would love to go and take my sister. We both need the break and re-connection time together as she lives in AZ & I in MI. We have a can deposit in MI. $.10. It might not seem like a lot, but it does add up. Save cans & pick them up on the side of the road, or have a can drive. (My kids usually use this money as their fun money on a trip).
Wow! I would love to go! I have four kids and my own business. . . I see all the comments on why we cannot go but there are so many more reasons why we should! I would take my mom, she doesn’t have a network of Christian friends and currently isn’t attending church. It is also her birthday Oct. 10! I am going to start praying about the possibility! Thanks for offering it!
A cruise sounds wonderful and relaxing. I recently saw a tip for saving on pinterest where for each week of the year you put away $1.00. For instance week 1 of January-$1.00, week 2-$2.00 and so on. It adds up quickly and at the end of the year you’ve saved over $1000.00. Also, now is a great time to purge your house of unwanted or unnecessary stuff and have a garage sale. I would want my daughter to go along. She is much more adventurous and a lot of fun.
I would absolutely LOVE to go on this Girlfriend Getaway!! When I first read this artical, the first thing I did was laugh and think to myself, “That is so YOU Alycia!” As a divorced mother of six children, that I adore, I find myself constantly looking for a friend, an adult… SOMEONE to have a face-to-face dialog with! This cruise would be a great opportunity for me to meet new friends, other than those on Facebook, and get a much needed get-away.
Raising six children, I don’t have extra income, but I was thinking I could possibly use some of my income tax return to pay for this trip.
If I were Blessed to win this trip, I would definitely take my Mother! She has been a mother, a best friend, a sounding board or therapist AND an emergency baby sitter for me! 🙂
The getaway sounds delightful. I just started a direct sales business and would be so fortunate if my profits reached a level where I could afford to go! I would most certainly take my mom, with whom I’m trying to plant the seeds of Jesus. God bless proverbs 31
My thoughts on the cruise: I would love to go on the cruise meet and make new friends. I need more friends to talk to and connect with. It would give me an opportunity to meet and make new friends and also get away. I sell Mary Kay for personal use and I also have a small clientele. I would push my MK sales and whatever profits I make from it I will put it in a vacation jar and I would save $50 a paycheck (i get paid once a month).
I would love to take my mother with me because I love her so much and my mother really deserves to go on a trip and be with such an amazing crowd of women and to make new friends as well.
I would love to go, but we are saving for so many other things right now (going to see family in California, going to Disney for me to run in the Disney Princess Half Marathon, etc.) that I don’t believe it is in the books right now; however, if it were to save I would put back so much a week just like we are doing now for these trips. And if I were to win the cruise I would probably take my grandmother who needs a good get-a-way!
Cruise would be so awesome and much needed, but not in budget or do I have some to watch my little one’s no family nearby.
I would take my best friend, Tammy, she is always caring for her kids.
Would love to go…save money by eating at home and taking the money for the trip!! It will b worth it!!
Hi Terase, I’m a group Leader for Premier Christian cruises…, would love for you to join my group…if you book with my group you get ex goodies…email back for more information…[email protected]
Sounds amazing! I could not afford a cruise at this time in my life. However, if I were to put back every $5 bill I receive I could probably get close. If I were to win a cruise I would definitely take my sister; she is my go-to person, my lifeline.