Thursday, April 26, 2012

Praying for Friends {aka} Ordering Friends How You Order a Pizza

Growing up, my parents always had lots of friends.  We lived in a small community that was miles away from the nearest town but there were always plenty of other parents around that my parents could relate to, even if their kids weren't the same age.  The dad's hunted together, the mom's sat together at ball games or watched their kids play together, the families attended the same church, some of them sang together in a music group at church, and one of my favorite memories is of the "coffee club."  My parents and their friends would all take turns hosting coffee & snacks at their homes after Sunday night worship services.  They all laughed and shared stories...they could lean on each other, talk to each other, and laugh together.

Now, my husband and I are living in the house I grew up and attending the church I where I was raised.  Except we don't have the same type of group as my parents did.  There is no "coffee club" for newlywed couples because there's only two couples and we don't have all that much in common.  In a small church, our options are being involved with my parent's friends or being involved with the high school kids.  We picked the adult classes, of course, and we do enjoy and love them.  Their ages range from 10 to 30 years old than us but since most people at our church are married, we have enough in common.

But sometimes...it'd be nice to have friends who we have more in common with.  It's hard to find people who meet all of the "requirements" we'd have for our best-friend-couple.  Requirements such as...
  • They'd have to be Christians.  I'd like for them to have similar beliefs to us so that there wouldn't be a whole lot of conflict.  My husband likes to argue...and different beliefs would surely mean the end of the friendship over time.  I'd also like it if they could come to our church.  =)  
  • It'd be pretty great if they were our age...or close.  
  • Coming to our church means they'd have to be local.  Which is preferred, since we'd be hanging out several times a week.  We don't have a whole lot of extra time, so it'd be best if they lived less than 15 minutes away.  
  • This is huge!  They would have to be married without children.  Also, can they not have any immediate plans to make children?  Hanging out would be much easier without having to find a baby-sitter every time something cool is going on.  And if they have kids and we don't, we'd have lots of differences.  However...if we decide we want kids..they have to be ready to have kids, too.  So that we can continue being friends, of course. ;)
  • They would have to be a little weird.  We love quirky, strange, interesting people.  Hopefully they have tattoos because while weird is good, they've still gotta be cool to chill with.  Haha 
  • They'd have to like Zombie.  Period.
  • They'd have their own sweet little doggy - NOT ANY CATS.  Mr. Robinson is allergic.  And their sweet little doggy would love Zombie & Zombie would love him/her.    
  • It'd be nice if we had similar interests because then we'd have more to talk about and more to do together!  In a perfect world, the husband would love sports and music.  In the same perfect world, the wife would love blogging and would make an excellent work out partner.  :)  But she wouldn't be too skinny yet...we'd have to get in shape together.  
  • They'd have to love food but not so much that they pick on my husband for being a picky eater.  He doesn't like that.  
  • At this point, asking them to be hilarious and have great senses of humor wouldn't be asking too much.  I've already ordered them how most people order a pizza.
  • It's necessary that they have good style.  Good style being defined as the wife shops at Express or at any sales rack, and the husband wears only Polo Ralph Lauren or nice suits & ties.  Also, Mr. Robinson needs for the husband to have at least one pair of Chucks.  Also again, it's be fun if the wives could get their nails done together.      
  • Also, and this is most important, they've gotta be swingers.  Kidding.  Ha! =)  You should have seen your face!!  Seriously, it'd be really important all of us are devoted to our spouses & not tempted at all by the friend-couple.
  • The husband has to be an intellectual.  The wife...not so much.  But she doesn't need to be ditz either.  
  • The couple would enjoy a nice social adult beverage from time to time.
  • Mr. Robinson would really enjoy a man friend who has excellent taste in movies & great actors.  Apparently this means really long action movies. 
The title of this post is "Praying for Friends."  Obviously, this is not my prayer.  This list is extensive, shallow, and impossible.  I know that you can't order friends like pizza's, but if we could...this is the couple we'd order.  Right now, there is one other married couple at our church.  The wive is my bridesmaid Brittany.  We love them, but our schedules never match up and we don't have very much in common.  We'd really love for God to send us a couple we have more in common with...and I know that He can.  We had friends before we got married, and we still stay in touch with them.  But we've moved.  Our friends are over an hour away OR more.  And we have less in common with them now...we're not asking for much!  Well, okay.  We are asking for a whole lot.  But we're only asking for one of these couples...not a whole group of them!  

Anyway, I just wanted to share this humorous list with y'all...but on a serious note, I wanted to document that lately I've really been praying for us to find some friends.  And I hope that God will send us some.  :)  


Coo Coo Kachoo, 
Mrs. Robinson

8 comments:

Amie said...

Aw, except for the Christian thing and the living close thing I think we'd all hit it off! If you're ever in the northwest we HAVE to meet up!!!
My husband is all about video games, loves movies and music, although I think his favorite subject lately is brewing...and you know I'm all about the exercising, but I love me some shopping too! I think at the end of the day our biggest love is the outdoors. We don't have any pets yet but we're hoping to adopt a dog or too by September or later :) And kids...haha, not for at least 5 years :)

Lauren said...

How do you always seem to read my mind?! My hubby and I are in a very similar boat right now. We left all our friends in Raleigh when we moved back to the Charlotte area after graduation, and like you said we've changed a lot too. We've made friends here, but none that seem to click as "life-long". Not for any fault of their own, just not exactly our type. The fact that y'all are so invested in your church (we're part of a church plant=lots of time at church!) and the fact that your intellectually and religion-minded hubby likes to argue pretty much confirms we are meant to be biffles. Now if only we lived closer!! Praying God sends you friends:-)

Nobody said...

I fit all of those - except for the 15 min thing - and babies... but, it seems like I can't get pregnant so that works out! August can't get here fast enough!!

Cori H. said...

J and I need couple friends too. They're very hard to find! All the couples at our church have kids. They don't waste any time around here! It'll be quite awhile before J and I think about having kids. We're not even married yet, and I want to wait a few years after we're married. Like I said, that's a foreign concept around here! I love your requirements, haha! Why can't we live closer???

Mrs.HappySteak said...

Too funny!!!

I understand this so much, I've been married 5 years and we still haven't fould another couple who really works for both or us. I either hit it off with the wife and he has nothing in common with the hubs or the other way around. It is tough sometimes. :(

Amber K said...

I so hear you. I feel like it's even harder here in the MB area because in the summer if they don't live IN your town it can take a solid hour in traffic to get to them. And we're getting ready to move even further south so I know it's not going to get any easier. I'll be praying you guys find the perfect couple to be friends with soon! :) I swear making friends is harder than dating some days!

Val said...

I can relate! My husband and I used to always complain about not having friends. We have similar requirements, the no kids thing is a huge one! Not only is it a lot of time/effort to find a baby sitter, but I don't want to hang out with kids. I know that's mean but it's true. We have one married couple set of friends, but that's it. And some of my friends always bring up double dating but they have a weird and/or mean boyfriend/fiance/husband so I never let that happen. Now that I think about it, my requirements for friends come down to one thing: BE NORMAL!

Ashley said...

I can relate too.... we used to have a few couple friends but they are either not together anymore or not at the same place in their life. It is hard to come by but I really miss it!!