God places people in our lives for a reason and I believe that to be 100% true. As a Christian, I believe that it is so important to have friends who push you closer to the Lord no matter what you are going through.

I am so thankful to have a roommate who constantly encourages me, and helps me get back on track when I start drifting away from God. It doesn’t matter what I am facing, Olivia is always there with an open ear, and an encouraging word. Our friendship was formed by God and without Him, I probably would not be this close to her.

He knew that I would need a friend like her, so He sent her up to my room one night my freshman year, in the midst of a hard time I was going through. I was a little nervous when she said she was going to come to my room and talk but looking back at it, I am so thankful she did. Throughout the almost two years that I have known Olivia, she is always the first person that I call or go to when something is going on in my life, whether it be good or bad. I find so much comfort in talking with her because of her genuine and caring personality.

There are many nights where we will sit up late at night talking. Our conversations are either really silly or pretty deep, and I am so thankful for both. I am blessed to have someone that I can open up to about my struggles, my walk with God, and just about anything else that’s going on.

We learn from each other and grow together as we walk through this life. The other night we had an amazing conversation, that was hard but so important. We have had a lot of really amazing conversations, but this one has really stuck with me.

I have been struggling with anxiety and I have been talking to her a lot about it. As I had my face shoved in a pillow trying to fight back tears, Olivia was telling me the importance of accepting where I am in my life and in my walk with Christ. I will be the first to admit that I tend to struggle with praying and reading my bible every night.

Often times I am too tired, or just not in a good mood so I just go to bed. When we were talking, I just realized how much I need God every day of my life. Not just sometimes. But all the time. As she talked, and I cried I just realized one, how lucky I am to have her in my life, and two, how right she was about everything she was saying.

I climbed into bed after that conversation and with “Oh Come to The Alter” playing in the background I opened up my bible to continue reading through the book of Job, and as I was reading through Chapter 22 I could feel God’s presence so much in those few moments.

The few verses that stood out to me were verse 21 “come to terms with God and be at peace; in this way, God will come to you.” Another verse was verse 27 “You will pray to Him, and He will hear you.” I instantly started crying because I realized that God does hear my prayers even when I don’t think that He does.

These verses also made me think about the conversation I was having with my roommate. We feel so much more peace in our lives when God is at the center.

I am so thankful for her constant encouragement, and I can’t wait to see what God has in store for the rest of our friendship.