Life Lessons from Hawaii #2: New Friends Don’t Replace Old Ones

I have been blessed, we have been blessed, with some really great fiends here in Hawaii. I know that people in Seattle were praying for the women that would become my friends here and I am so thankful for answered prayers.

Hawaii has a word for family, and it’s “o’hana.”  An o’hana goes beyond blood ties and welcomes in people of all shapes, sizes, colors and statuses. It’s been so nice to have a family of brothers and sisters in Christ here, and for that both Erik and I are extremely grateful.

Yet having moved (and this is the first really big move I’ve ever made), I find there is truth to the old children’s song, which says, “Find new friends but keep the old. One is silver and the other’s gold.”

While we have friends here, they don’t replace the friends we have in Seattle, and all around the world at this point. People we have spent years with, shared laughter and tears with and done life with will always be important to us. And man, there are days when I truly miss some of my friends who are in Seattle.

In the past I have experienced people moving away and “moving on” — getting new friends and falling out of contact. When we moved that idea scared me. I didn’t want to move on, I didn’t want to forget and in my selfishness I didn’t want to be forgotten.  By God’s grace I haven’t, and I won’t.  Those people who are true friends—the kind you can just fall apart with and not be judged — those friends will last forever.

And God, in His goodness, just keeps adding to our o’hana of friends. 

Us with the Croswells--part of our Hawaiian O'hana.