The subject has been on my heart. So last week, I sat down with my two oldest daughters, Naomi (17) and Anna (15), on separate occasions for a daddy/daughter talk on the subject of friendship. I simply asked...who are your best friends? The answers they gave were both without hesitation, that their mother and one another were their best friends. This was a fact I already knew because it is both verbalized on a regular basis and demonstrated in practice daily.

My desire, however, was to get outside the walls of our home, to the other people that they considered close friends.

What happened next was a deep encouragement to my soul as a father. Both of my daughters' lists of closest friends included 5 ladies ranging from as young as age 13 to two women over 50 and a few in between. I thought to myself, how wonderful that they both had godly young women whom they could treat as sisters and older women whom they could treat as mothers (1 Tim. 5:2) and receive the kind of influence that Titus 2 models for us.

I know that to some, what I have just said is weird, and they may immediately think that surely my children need more friends their own age. On the contrary, I want to say how marvelous it is to be apart of a church family that allows for both young and old to grow in Christ and community together. A church where it is not abnormal to see a 17-year-old praying with or visiting with a 13-year-old or a 50-year-old. Nor is it freakish to hear a 15-year-old list off a woman who has three adult children as one of her dearest friends.

I believe that is the way God intended friendships to be. Older friends that can invest wisdom of years into the life of the younger, who in turn, are often encouraged and invigorated in their own lives because of the friendships that flourish with these younger ladies.

The reality of these kind of strategic friendships is that they are wonderful for both men and women, young and old. These friendships that flourish have also been a blessing to me as a pastor. It has been one of the greatest joys of my life to have other men of God, who are old enough to be my father, befriend me, challenge me, pray for me, and rebuke me on occasion. I also have friends that are young men, new husbands, and new fathers that desire to grow into men of God who lead well.

May God help strategic friendships to flourish in our biblically-ordered homes and churches.

Iron sharpeneth iron; So a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend (Prov. 27:17).

by Craig Houston is pastor of Westside Baptist Church . Privileged to grow up in a Christian home, Craig came to faith at a young age and was baptized. He married his sweetheart, Emily (Grogan), in 1994. They have have been blessed with eleven children and are seeking to raise them for the Kingdom of God. Craig was called to preach at 19, trained under his pastor in the local church and ordained into the Gospel ministry in 1997. He was sent out to plant a church in Oregon in 1998 and has been privileged to pastor Westside Baptist Church in Bremerton, Washington, since 2002.

Craig has a passion for the Glory of God, the global advance of the Gospel, expository Bible preaching, restoring the Christian home, and uniting church and family.