As a child, we moved every two to three years for my dad’s job, which equated to six moves, and more than a dozen houses (including a family friend’s house and a motel) before I graduated from high school.

This also meant that I was always the new girl.

As soon as I would make new friends, it was time to move again. This was exciting when I was in grade school, but it had harder effects as I approached the teenage years.

While it was true that we collected many amazing friends as we traversed the Texas Panhandle, I consistently longed for the deep, long-lasting friendships that I saw in each town. I didn’t have the memories of being in a class with a group of friends from kindergarten or growing up alongside other families. I wasn’t in everyone’s yearbooks or class pictures.

One of our basic needs is to belong, and I wanted to belong.

“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” {Isaiah 43:19}

Thankfully I had a supportive family, but I still needed close friends. I learned early that being the new girl meant getting involved and trying extra hard to get to know others. It meant not knowing the inside jokes or where all of the best places in town were. It meant not being invited to slumber parties the first half of the year, and students asking your name every day. It meant you didn’t belong yet.

Yet.

As I moved off to college, I moved in with my closest girlfriend and joined a sorority. We had an amazing freshman year, and I felt as new as everyone else there. It felt good. The Lord soon stirred my heart to go to another school and was once again the new girl. I moved into a 3-story sorority house, filled with 100 girls who had entered college together and had built tight friendships with one another. My picture wasn’t in all of the frames and I didn’t understand all of the stories that sent them all into giggling fits.

Yet.

Here I am many years later, and I find myself in a new town with 3 small children. My girls haven’t been in dance with all of the other girls since they were toddlers. We don’t know all of the best places in town to go. We aren’t in lifegroups with couples who have been friends for years. We aren’t in all of the pictures and don’t know where to go to church.

Yet.

“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.” {Ezekiel 36:26}

Being the new girl can be hard. It has taught me that you have to put yourself out there. You have to be willing to make friends and be a friend. It means having to introduce yourself over and over again, but that can be an exciting part of the journey.

Being the new girl also means a new beginning. It means more friends, more experiences, more character. It means trusting God when there is no one else to lean on. It means counting the friends you do have and being thankful. It means that having one good friend is a blessing. It means you are good at letters and emails and phone calls. It means you are a friend to other new people. It means you have stories to share and new lives to impact. It means new friends.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” {2 Corinthians 5:17}

As we move through life, we often find ourselves in new places and new situations, but these circumstances aren’t new to God. He is the Master and Creator of our life story. He has a plan for every packed bag and new introduction we make.

As I learned to embrace the newness around me, I realized that I had belonged all along. God had created the most wonderful group of friends for me along the way.

Every woman is new at some point in her life. Let’s trust that God has the perfect friend waiting for us. She will be the perfect friend to add to the tapestry of friends that God has designed for us. It may not look like everyone else’s tapestry, but He isn’t finished with our story.

Yet.

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Related:Remind your friend she is beautiful; she is strong; she is brave; she is loved — with this set of four beautiful dessert plates.

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