Guy Friends

 I was thinking, anyone who had some good opposite sex friends in their youth is much better prepared for marriage and being good friends with their mate. 

My first closest guy friends were Steve and Mark. I felt very close to them for 2 years when I was in Junior High. We played baseball and basketball a lot. I had a few guys friends in my church youth group too. We would play football catch at times. 

In High School, I was best friends with a guy named Moses from my church for 3 years. We walked to and from school every day with our other friend Andrea. We rode bikes to play basketball like once a week or so. He was a really good guy. His dad was a pastor. It is too bad I lost contact with him. 

My Senior year of high school I got a job at Office Depot. There were two guys there that I hung out with a lot, James and Stephen. I had a big crush on both of them, but mostly they were just friends. James went on to become a missionary in Africa. I like to think I had a hand in him wanting to do that. I was friends with them for about 2 years. 

In college I got heavily involved in the choir there. I was pretty close with Bryan and Dirk in the choir. All the guys in that choir felt like my good friends or my brothers even. I would have dated any of them if they would have asked. But none of them did. So sad. I know they all just wanted to focus on finishing college. 

I hung out with my older brother a lot when I was in college too. He would come visit my college and we would play pool or go to the movies or go play frisbee at the beach. He kept wanting me to set him up with my friends in college, but I knew they weren't interested in dating. I should have let him have a chance with a few of them though.

After college I got pretty close with both of my step-brothers. One was 6 years older and the other was 5 years younger. They were good guys for the most part. We would play tennis or go to a fun church together. 

Then I re-united with friends from high school. They were hanging out with two guys named Victor and Marty. I started playing soccer with them and going swimming. We had a lot of fun hanging out for two years. 

Then I met a guy at church named Walter. We were friends for about a year. He was a bit strange. That's why we remained just friends, and I didn't date him. 

Then I went to work on a cruise ship with the kids on board. I suppose the comedian on the ship was a good friend to my room-mate and I. 

I then went to live with my brother and met my first true love Roger at a job I found working with at risk teens. We lived together for 2 years. Mostly we had a great relationship. It was very sad when he died. Be careful of drinking and taking pills at the same time. It can be deadly. 

Then I got married to my ex-husband about 6 months after he died. We had fun times for 7 years. 

After we divorced, I had a close friend at work named Thomas. He was so kind and fun to be around. Ironically my current boyfriend is a lot like him. He seems to be a replica of Thomas. So that is great. 

It is good to have friends of the opposite sex your entire life. I think a lot of marriage problems are due to anger at the opposite sex. People fight more in marriage if they never learned how to be good friends with the opposite sex. 

If you have kids, encourage them to have friends of both genders. They will need that in order to have a better marriage in the future. Women need to understand guys better, and men need to understand women better. The best way to do that is to have a lot of opposite sex friends.