Just Call Me Sister

Just Call Me Sister

See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!

Arms laden with gift baskets, I carefully made my way up the carpeted aisle. As worship music boomed from the speakers and a countdown scrolled on the projectors, I placed the items on the stage and found a chair that would allow me to jump out of my seat at a moment’s notice.

From the stage, my sister Kendra—one of the Single Moms’ Retreat emcees—gave me a nod as she continued to make last-minute production changes. Within minutes, she was smiling onstage, exchanging witty repartee with her co-emcee and announcing all the details attendees would need to know. As she moved on to giveaways, I hurried up the aisle, ready to hear who had won so that I could hand them their prize.

But then she paused.

“This is Kristin, and she hates to be the center of attention,” she said as my face turned ten shades of red. “Everyone smile and say hi!”

As the crowd laughingly complied, she added, “It’s okay. She’s my sister.”

As the giveaways continued and the event rolled on, I found myself with a new nickname: Sister. I heard it while standing in the line that snaked out the door, waiting for lunch. I heard it as I walked across the pathways that crisscrossed the camp or helped out at one of the conference booths in the back of the worship center. Wherever I turned, women called me Sister, usually with a smile.

There is an instant connection and camaraderie that is achieved when someone feels like they’re on the inside of a private joke. In a sea of women, many of whom came alone and at the last minute, I was suddenly a familiar face. And as the weekend rolled on, I began to view the nickname in a whole new way. As children of God, we are a family. At its best, friendship is a sisterhood. Though the women I encountered may have had different backgrounds, hobbies, or parenting styles, each of us could connect as God’s children, wholly and deeply loved—not just as friends, but as sisters in the family of God.

— Kristin

— Today’s Act of Friendship —

Consider friends who have become spiritual sisters to you. Reach out to one of them to thank her for her friendship.