the drive-thru is junk

A close friend sent me a message in response to what I wrote about struggling with friendships.  I was reminded that our friendship has taken ten years to get to where it is now.

Ten years is a lot of investing.

Friendship is an investment.  

This is a powerful truth.  It takes focus to really understand what that means.

In this world of quick, easy, convenient, painless, instant gratification, I wonder if we're missing the point...

In this world where many of us [children included!] stay up late and awaken tired...when many reach for a cereal bar and think it's a meal, I wonder if we're missing out on savoring and appreciating when meals are often eaten on-the-go...

In this world facing a crisis of obesity [at all ages]...when McDonald is being chosen as the quickest, easiest way to feed our family [or ourselves], I wonder if the dinner table is converting to mission control, rather than a place inviting meaningful conversation...

In this world of insanely over-booked schedules [for our children!], I wonder if we're really using our children as an excuse to not make time for others, and if we're hiding behind our children versus being real...

In this world of waving hello and calling it a friendship, I wonder what we're teaching our children about taking time...

And most of all, in this world where many of us {still} have friendship-issues, and we just want to hide because we never feel good enough...I wonder if there's more we can do for ourselves [and others].

We need to invest.  

The drive-thru is not made for solid healthy friendships...or true relationships of any kind.

The drive-thru friendship is not enough to nourish.  

The drive-thru friendship isn't anything other than junk-food for the soul.

Carving out time to sit down and not be rushed is an investment.  

Allowing conversations to occur that are real, is like peas and carrots to the soul.  Gossiping about others and complaining about our schedule, our kids, our husband, our jobs, our laundry, our to-do lists...that's just like eating donuts, and it doesn't sustain us.  

Investing takes effort, time, energy, patience, and most of all...time to grow.  

What are you feeding your relationships?