the influence of friends

friend \'frend\ n 1: A person you know well and regard with affection and trust; 2: An associate who provides assistance; 3: A person with whom you are acquainted.

Both Daren and I agree that the friends we had growing up played a huge part of our lives, one reason being that they influenced so many decisions we made. The friends I had, and still have to this day, are for the most part the ones I played sports with, and I love them all and appreciate the important part they have played in my life. I look around at the friends our boys have and it makes me so grateful for the area we live in. They have great friends at church, in the neighborhood, and at school. Both Ben and Jake can make new friends wherever they go because they love to interact with others. Will.......well, he's another story. He actually loves to talk to adults and will talk their ears off, but he doesn't do a whole lot of interacting with other kids, but we're working on it. These pictures just made me think how grateful I am for good friends in our boys lives.

The other day Jake was playing outside with Jaycie and Gregory (as mentioned before: formerly known as Craig when we couldn't understand what his name was, and now affectionately known as Craigory by all). Jaycie asked me to watch her go across the monkey bars in our yard, and suddenly Jake just followed along behind her and got almost all the way across! Craigory was following along close behind, and there were just these three cute little kids working their way across the monkey bars like it was no big deal. I have never seen Jake go on one bar, and here he was going all the way. It just goes to show what an influence friends can have.

Being with friends is a huge motivator for Ben. If friends are involved, he usually wants to do whatever is going on. He has played soccer several times and t-ball once, always with at least one friend on his team. He was asked last year at school if he wanted to play lacrosse, to which he quickly answered "NO," and life went on. He was asked a couple of times this year just before school started; same answer. But this time, we pushed him a little harder on it. It's a fine line you have to walk with Ben--we didn't want to force him to play anything, but on the other hand, maybe all he needed was a little encouragement. So I asked him, the evening before the first practice, why he didn't want to play. He eventually answered that he didn't know anything about the sport and would be nervous to play. BINGO! We talked about it, but the clincher was the fact that he would be playing with a lot of his friends and he agreed to give it a try. Now I think he actually really likes it. His first game was last Saturday, and he looked so cute in his uniform!! Here he is waiting for play to start.

It was fun to see him in a face-off, but the kid he was going against was a little rough on all of them--he didn't care about getting the ball first, he just wanted to mow over the person he was going against. We still won. There are some incredibly talented boys on his team with a lot of natural athletic ability. It's been nice because he hasn't complained once about the time spent at practices or games, because he is with his friends.

Now this is the latest "at-school" phase Ben is going through--Bakugons. Maybe it's just me, because I don't really understand the hype about it, but he and some friends at school are crazy about these things. Ben spent quite a bit of allowance on these things, but whatever!

Like I said before, the influence of friends can impact so many phases of our lives, and I am so grateful for our boy's friends. I hope they will always have such great friends to influence their lives for the good. And Will......I'm sure he will find his own real friend soon.