The Importance of Girl Time

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 Good morning, friends!

  I was laying in bed this morning, listening to the rain, and painting my fingernails when a big smile came across my face. 

I was thinking back to this time last year when I went on my first "date'' with who is now one of my best friends, Crystal.

  After a few personal messages were exchanged on Facebook, we set up a time to meet at her house and have a 'girl's night'. I honestly had never had one of these nights with anyone but family members, so I had no idea what to expect, especially since I hadn't ever visited with her in person. 

  Typically, a girl's night out means going out on the town and living it up with your friends and while there is nothing wrong with this, it's not who I am.

  I like personal time with friends where you can have meaningful conversations... Conversations your husbands don't necessarily want to hear. (More on that in a minute)

Crystal felt the same way.

  I finally arrived at Crystal's house after a nervous, gut-wrenching drive up the mountain, then drank a little too much wine out of nervousness and proceeded to have a great conversation while making sugar scrubs. 

 It. Was. Bliss.

 I felt like I had found out some amazing secret that only real women knew about...

 ... girl time.

  I had heard about it, but had only practiced this novelty alone with a ped-egg and The Real Housewives of New Jersey.

  Not exactly what 'girl time' meant.

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  In the last year, I have relished every single time she and I have gotten together. She has been patient in teaching me about why we only share certain facts and info about ourselves with other girls and not our husbands (not important things, but girls stuff they don't want to hear but don't have the heart to tell you), the importance of wearing something other than holy yoga pants and Monty Python t-shirts to bed, and most importantly, that I really needed to work on being a patient and understanding wife.

  I would share situations with her that were just making my blood boil and she would calmly say, "Well, do you think this may be why so-and-so said/did this?"

  "Well, yeah, you're probably right. Dang it."

Y'all, this is why friendships are important.

  God knew knew I needed some awesome friends in my life to bounce ideas off of and to help me grow. He has placed good women in my path. Of course, I already had good women in my life (my friend, Jerian, and my sister) but I hadn't nurtured those relationships.

  I'm learning as I go.

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  Recently, I've started running again, except this time, I'm running with a wonderful friend from  church. Typically, running is a chore, but this time, we use our walking times as 'girl time'. We bounce ideas about parenting, marriage, and any other topics you think of off of each other and most nights, we stand around talking for an hour after we run. It's so uplifting and I leave with new ideas and new scriptures to chew on until our next run.

 It's so important for it to be women that you share things with.
 Yes, you can share with your husband, and you should... to a point.
 BUT, men are wired differently than we are. They don't necessarily understand venting, so when we vent, they naturally want to FIX it.
"Oh, this person/ problem has made her upset. Therefore, I should  fix this, or I should be angry at this person. Why else would she be telling me?"
Men instinctively want to protect us, so this is simply nature kicking in.
And sometimes I'm very glad it does.
 But I'm telling him because I just want him to listen. Now I see that that's where having girlfriends comes in handy.

I'm slowly coming out of my shell when it comes to having a solid group of girls I can trust and that I whole-heartedly love, and it has been amazing.

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What do you like to do for girl time?
What benefits have you found from having amazing girlfriends?
Leave me a comment or share on my Facebook page here.

-Heather