All parents know how important it is for our kids to have good friends.

Friends to play with, to talk to, to rely on.

But finding friends isn't always easy.

We know this about our kids, but we also see it in our own lives as adults.

At every age, friendship is something that we all crave, but often

struggle to find. My guest today is Trillia Newbell, and she unpacks how God is designed

all of us for friendship, both with one another, but even more importantly, with himself. Through

a story about a young boy praying for a new friend, Trillia unpacks the

importance of waiting on the Lord, going to him in prayer, and ultimately believing that we always

have a friend, Jesus. Trilia Newbell serves as Acquisitions Director at Moody Publishers and is the author

of numerous books, including a new picture book for kids called

Jesus and the Gift of Friendship from Crossman. Let's get started.

Well, Trillia, thank you so much for joining me on the Crossplay podcast today.

Thank you. I'm so glad to be here. In 2021, the American

Enterprise Institute published a survey on friendship in the U.S. and they found that, quote,

the role of friends in American social life is experiencing a pronounced decline. And as I kind of

looked at the study, they saw that they found that Americans have fewer friends

than they once did. We talked to our friends less than we once did, and we rely on our friends

for like personal support far less than we did in the past. I guess my first big question is

did those findings of this survey, and I think things that we kind of hear talked about

oftentimes in American life, does that resonate with things that you're seeing and hearing

in the church itself? Absolutely. I think we're an individualistic society. And we're also,

...