Book Review: The Gift of Friendship

When I first picked up the book The Gift of Friendship: Stories That Celebrate the Beauty of Shared Moments (edited by Dawn Camp), I was impressed by the list of contributors (Lisa-Jo Baker, Holley Gerth, Liz Curtis Higgs, Jennifer Dukes Lee, Renee Swope, Lysa Terkeurst and the list goes on) but wondered if it would have more fluff than heart and meat.  Yet when I started reading it, I could not put it down.

This book celebrates the beauty of friendships of many types, encourages you to remember the blessing of those friends God has placed in your life (even if only for a season) and gives you courage to reach out to others if in need of a friend or to be that friend someone else needs.  Even though each story is from a different woman reflecting on her own friendships and experiences, there is so much in the book that you can relate to and draw parallels to your own life.  It helped me to reflect on the friendships that I treasure, those that maybe I need reconnect with, and consider the importance of the small (and large) investments that keep a friendship healthy.  Sometimes just a text to encourage or an invitation to coffee is all it takes to bless a friend that has blessed you.  The book also celebrates those friendships that are just for a season, recognizing the importance of those God has placed in our path for a season and the impact those connections can make as well, something I don't often reflect on.

I appreciated that each entry in the book is heartfelt yet short, making it a great book to read just a story at a time while sitting in a waiting room or waiting for kids to get done with an activity or for when I had just 5-10 minutes of time that I wanted to fill with positive encouragement instead of scrolling through social media.  (Though I ended up reading this book much quicker than that as I was hooked by the stories and needed to finish it to get this post completed).

This book would be a great way to bless a friend (or two or three) in your life as a way to let them know their friendship blesses you.  I'm already trying to decide who to pass my copy to :)


* I was given a free copy of the book in exchange for a review.  All opinions and words are my own.