So I'm just wondering...do relationships last?

A few years ago my husband and I met some friends. They seemed a lot like us. Big career professionals, making the six figure salaries and enjoying life. We had fun together, went to dinner a lot, went to parties together, cruises, etc. We found we really enjoyed living the high life to the fullest, it was just plain fun! Then we got to know another friend and he introduced us all to a world we'd never known.

Well, that's almost true. I had known that world, it had been a lesser life comparably. My dad was a blue-collar worker and my mom was an alcoholic. I might have been considered a girl from the wrong side of the tracks- except it was my well kept secret.

When we met this friend I wondered.... is there really such a thing as a good friend? I'd grown up never able to trust school girl friends. They were as fickle as they came! I never knew what it would be like at home at any given moment. It wasn't a controlled environment, or was it? Anyway, I couldn't really ever let them into my life so I would be their friend. I was just a bit concerned about whether they would still hang out with me if they knew what was happening at my house. So we just didn't go there, ever. And as that life proceeded I just didn't get along with my mom anymore and from there I decided just not to let people in... to my thoughts or life. Especially not women.

Later when these friends came along my modus operandi hadn't really changed. So I found myself wondering now that my life seemed to be all put together, could I have trusted, faithful friends?

That's when I began to find out what is was like to be a faithful friend. You know the golden rule- treat others as you would have them treat you? So I started working on being a really good friend. A friend in need is a friend indeed, right? Well, I quickly got overwhelmed with being a friend in deed to my friends in need! It wasn't money but time! And I chose to invest my "precious" time in my friends because afterall, they would do the same for me, right? Isn't that the way it's supposed to work?

Now I suppose you are wondering what about this name.. journey to the promised land. Okay, it comes from when God asked Abraham to leave his country, his family and go to a place God would show him. We get the privilege of knowing the whole story- it turned out to be the promised land. But Abraham had a choice, trust his friend God, believe and obey or not. Hmm, anyone ever wonder where we would be if some of these guys chose not to obey? Or how many others God may have asked?

My quest dear reader, is to endeavor to find the promised land of friendship/relationship. But I am no expert, just a nameless, faceless friend of God enduring to believe, hoping in what I cannot see but knowing it's got to be there!