Out on the playground you meet a person. You play four-square, tether ball, tag, and who knows what all and become friends. You ride bikes together, spend the night at each other’s house, and share secrets. As the years pass, you have boyfriends or girlfriends and encourage each other through finals in high school, heartaches, and maybe even bullies. Then comes graduation. You both go your separate ways. You may be able to keep up on each other through Facebook, but you don’t see each other in person. You live in different states. Time goes by. You both get married have kids, get jobs, live life. What happened to that bond you shared? Is it still there? Are the memories strong enough to keep you together?

Last weekend, I had the privilege of meeting my childhood friend for the first time since ninth grade. We had met on the playground in first grade. Our parents went to college and seminary together. We moved from Iowa to Washington at the same time. However, in the ninth grade, my family moved from Tacoma, Washington, to Colville, Washington, a little town north of Spokane in eastern Washington. From there, we moved to Oregon where I graduated from high school and met my husband. My husband and I settled down on the Southern Oregon Coast, while my friend settled down on the Olympic Peninsula. As I stopped by her parents’ house, I saw kids running around that matched pictures I had seen on Facebook of her kids. Could it be that I would see her? My delight was evident as was hers when we greeted each other with hugs. The bond had held the test of time. I would have loved to have more than forty minutes to talk, but those forty minutes will be cherished forever.

Friendships are important. They hold us together and make us who we are. As parents we want our kids to have the right friends. We tell them who they can or cannot hang out with. Our friends can build us up or tear us down. We need to be careful, even as adults, who we spend time with.

This theme of friendship winds its way through the Dragon Courage series. In book one, we meet a character who has chosen a friend who leads him down the wrong path. Cerulean thinks that his friend is good and kind, but somewhere along the way, he realizes his mistake. The story unfolds and you’ll have to read Dragon’s Future to find out what Cerulean does. Another group of friends is Kyn and Ruskya. As time progresses through the series, the two are more like brothers or an uncle and nephew. Kyn meets Braidyn in Dragon’s Future and later in Dragon’s Heir the two meet again. Their friendship stands the test of time. In Dragon’s Revenge, Kyn meets a new character and the two become fast friends, almost brothers.

Friends can be made at any time in life. Some come and some go, but the good ones stay with you through thick and thin. I hope you have at least one friend that is like that. If not, reach out to someone and try to be that kind of friend to them. Who knows you may make your own friend.