by Loni Stel

Created on: July 29, 2009

The Friends We Keep: A Woman's Quest for the Soul of Friendship is an easy to read book by Sarah Zacharias Davis. She shares openly with her personal stories and those of others, the ups and downs of women's friendships and relationships. The author wrote this during a very difficult time in her life (divorce) and how some of her friends seemed to reject and ignore her, causing even more pain and loneliness.

"We long for a best friend as we long for home, for comfort, for love, and for acceptance. What makes this woman our best friend is the trust we place in her when we share our heart's deepest hurts and disappointments, our questions or our success, our dreams, and our laughter. It is our best friend who will scour the depths of our heart and disappointmment with us. It is our best friend who celebrates our joys, who gives answers to our questions. Sometimes, even more important, it is our best friend - our anamchara - who sits in the unknowing and the fog with us, not pretending to know." p. 93

The Friends We Keep: A Woman's Quest for the Soul of Friendship is a 210 paged, easy reading book which reads poetically with tenderness and compassion. The author shares the need and desire women have for close friendships.

"Unexpected friendships, unanticipated joy. Even for the cynical soul, life still offers surprises. Some relationships slowly tiptoe into our lives, into our experiences, and into our memories forever, and yet they know us from our feet with the force of their friendship." p. 119, 120

While her story is the story of how friendships are through different seasons of women's lives, this is not a "how-to" book. This book was written as a "Christian" book and is not saturated with Scripture. I did not find anything "wrong" or against Scripture, but though it would include more encouragement from a Biblical viewpoint. I found the beginning a little harder to get into, but the last several chapters captivated me a lot more. I appreciated the "release" of failed frie"ndships and encouragements with others.

"How do we serve our friends, our sisters, so completely? How do we love one another without judgment and with acceptance? How do we empower one another to live more fully into the women we were created to be?" p. 140

"So how do we give our friendships what they sometimes need? Space is sitting with your friend in silence, space is allowing her to find her way in her time, space is sometimes suspending judgment, space is not always needing to have the right words or the right advice, and space can be simply walking away for a time, even just to stand a short distance away." p. 160

Though this is not a deep book, I found The Friends We Keep: A Woman's Quest for the Soul of Friendship easy to relate to, with encouragement and forgiveness regarding friendships. This book would make a nice gift for a woman who is hurting. This book is being released today from the publishers, WaterBrook Press. I rate this book a 3 1/2 out of 5.

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