Sister Friends

The bible tells us that first God made man, and then he made us: caring, nurturing, talented, differently-shaped, diverse groups of women. We are moms, sisters, daughters, aunts, wives, and friends. But for some very unfortunate reason, we seem to harbor much dislike and disrespect for one another.

I’ve often wondered why we are like this. Why does so much jealousy and competition exist between us?  I don’t believe we were born to be this way and I don’t believe that God meant for us to be this way.

Sister Friends, my purpose in writing this book is to bring an awareness to women-all women-of our behavior toward other sister friends. I want us to realize what it is we are doing and to get a better understanding of why we do it. I hope to explore why we lack so much respect, consideration, empathy and understanding for our sister friends.

It seems to me that there should be a sisterhood between all women. Let’s face it: we are all facing similar life experiences, problems, disappointments and joys, and we should be there to support one another through all of those things in the best way that we can. We should look out for each other, pray for each other and stick together.  It shouldn’t matter what ethnic background we come from, how attractive we are or whether or not we are overweight or slinky thin, introverted or extroverted.  We should be bonded, not unrealistically, but to the point where we protect each other from harm or from feeling left out.  We should simply be able to enter a room of new faces and be relieved to see other women in that room because they are one of us.

The reality, however, is that we don’t. At any and every opportunity, whether to one another’s face or behind each others backs, we take pleasure in turning against each other.  The question we must ask ourselves is “Why?”  Why do we need to put each other down in order to be happy?

It has taken me many years to realize what has and what is still going on with we sisters. I’m not suggesting that all women exhibit this behavior, but the ones who do, believe me, are in the majority.  Fortunately, there are some women with caring hearts, women who don’t need to put other sisters down or turn against them in order to be happy.  There are sister friends who have grown up and grown out of that behavior. We all should.