Welcome, come on in & we’ll enjoy a cuppa together while reflecting upon what a Friendship Sanctuary means for you, as it’s quite different for each individual.

So grab a mug of your favourite beverage, a treat & get comfy. My eldest daughter, who lives interstate, sent me some delicious treats & a set of little books of Tea (they’re so quaint) they’re in the form of a set of four books & contain organic  herbal teabags inside each cover, eight varieties in all between them.

I’ve picked a Berry blend today & a gf Fruit mince tart to enjoy with it. What have you grabbed today my friend?

Now we’re comfy let’s begin…

A Sanctuary in Friendship…

A dear friend of mine, you met her in;

Matters of the Heart!

contacted me last week to organise a meet up, as she wanted to treat me to a belated birthday lunch (I recently celebrated another birthday).

We met up this week at our favourite spot & enjoyed a delicious lunch together, solved all the world’s problems as we do lol!  And came away feeling rejuvenated after being in the company of a wonderful friend of over forty years.

A friendship where acceptance & care for each other has been at the forefront, traversing many valleys & mountains in life supporting each other all the way.

Our friendship is a type of sanctuary for each of us where we’re respectful, comfortable & not demanding of each other, knowing that our uniquenesses & differences are never judged & we can relax in each other’s company.

For me that’s what Sanctuary is, it’s a place of acceptance & safety where I can relax.

Defining Sanctuary 

When we look at various dictionary definitions for Sanctuary we get two main meanings, the broader one is;

‘anywhere people go for peaceful tranquility or introspection.‘

The other meaning is the original of Sanctuary which is;

‘A sacred & Holy place where God is present’

And that really does tie in with my words for this year (WOTY) the Sanctuary of Thanks-living.

Living in a state of gratefulness is in itself a place of peaceful tranquility. For to be grateful we need to be retrospective (know what we’ve been through) & introspective (reflective upon what we’re grateful for through those life unexpected ups & downs).

Thanks-living

I am extremely grateful for my dear friend & for the friendship that we have nurtured over the past forty years.

It was definitely a God ordained meeting as we met at the very beginning of our years at Bible College. And it has been a friendship of encouragement & honesty over those years.

This brings me to a post I wrote a while ago on friendship matters;

The Art of Friendship

While this Friendship is a blessing in the boarder category of Sanctuary, there’s an even greater Sanctuary & we’ll be looking at this in more depth in the coming months.

Until next time,

Jennifer

You’re most welcome to join me in The Reading Nook

or in Prayer

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© 2026 Jennifer M. Ross, All Rights Reserved. Photo by Valeria Boltneva on Pexels.com 

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