A few weeks ago, I took time out of my crazy schedule to get away for an annual “girlfriends weekend” in McCall, Idaho. There are seven of us “girls” who worked our way through Boise State University by waiting tables together at the ChartHouse restaurant. We are a group of women who have been friends for more than 25 years, love good food, late night conversations and laughing until we cry. We are a diverse group of women married to an even more diverse group of men. One of the husbands is a pastor at a megachurch with over 20,000 members; two of the husbands are atheists. One girlfriend is a staunch Democrat while one is a staunch Republican, the rest of us fall somewhere in the middle. We are all at different stages of life. One girlfriend has a 2-year-old while another has children in their mid-twenties. Together, over the past 25 years we have experienced success, joy, pain and failure. We have celebrated our marriages, walked through a couple of divorces, remarriages, childbirth, addiction, our kids’ first day of school and now our children graduating from high school and college.

This year our girlfriends weekend conversations ranged from the joys and struggles of raising teenagers to the presidential election and refugees. All are hot topics. As you can imagine, our opinions were as diverse as we are a group of women. While we all like to be heard, and we don’t always agree with each other (except for food, we all love food), our conversations were beautiful. They were safe. As a group, we respect each other and we genuinely try to understand what fuels a different perspective. With each conversation we learn and we grow.

On our final evening together, a couple of my girlfriends decided to prepare a nice farewell dinner for our group. As I walked out onto the candlelit deck I became completely overwhelmed to the point where I could not speak. As we held hands and prayed over our meal and for our safe journeys home, I could not stop the tears from flowing down my face. As hard as I tried, I could not hold back my emotion from the realization of how completely blessed I am to have these women in my life. They are my tribe and my disciples.

On the drive home from McCall to Moses Lake I couldn’t stop thinking about Jesus and his disciples sitting around a table, talking, breaking bread together and learning from each other. While I highly doubt their conversation was anything like ours, I’m certain they discussed hot topics and had diverse opinions. I’m also certain it was safe.

I am learning in my old-ish age that in any conversation, listening is just as important as talking. Sometimes it is more important. Providing a safe environment for people with different opinions or a different belief system opens the doors of communication wide. You don’t have to agree with one another but I am positive you will learn from one another. I encourage you, if you haven’t already, to surround yourself with people different than you. One day you just may end up sitting at a candlelit table with tears streaming down your face feeling as blessed as I do.

This article was written on behalf of the Moses Lake Christian Ministerial Association.