Friendship

Why is it so hard for little girls to open their hearts to friendship? I have been watching lately as my little girls pour their hearts and souls into their friends...thinking this friend or that friend validates them as a person and realizing that as much as they love their friends, sometimes the love isn't returned equally. I've watched their little hearts break and this is one of the hardest things as a mom. I wish I could take away these lessons they're learning; protect them from the hurt and keep them romanticising about friendship. But, it is a lesson that not any friend, except Jesus, will always be there for them. I've always been one to put up walls and not let friends get too close for fear that when they really know me they won't like me. Maybe I need to start being a better example to them...maybe I need to be more vulnerable in friendships and at the same time allow only Christ to validate me.