The Friends We Keep by Sarah Zacharias Davis

The Friends We Keep

by Sarah Zacharias Davis

The Friends We Keep is Sarah’s thoughtful account of her own story and the stories of other women about navigating friendship. With heartfelt, intelligent writing, Sarah explores the questions every woman asks about friendship and more with personal stories, cultural references and history, faith, and grace. In the process, she delivers wisdom for navigating the challenges, mysteries, and delights of friendship: why we need friendships with other women, what it means to be safe in relationship, and how to embrace what a friend has to offer, whether meager or generous.


During a particularly painful time in her life, Sarah Zacharias Davis learned how delightful–and wounding–women can be in friendship. She saw how some friendships end badly, others die slow deaths, and how a chance acquaintance can become that enduring friend you need.


The Friends We Keep is Sarah’s thoughtful account of her own story and the stories of other women about navigating friendship. Her revealing discoveries tackle the questions every woman asks:

• Why do we long so for women friends?



• Do we need friends like we need air or food or water?



• What causes cattiness, competition, and co-dependency in too many friendships?



• Why do some friendships last forever and others only a season?



• How do I foster friendship?



• When is it time to let a friend go, and how do I do so?

With heartfelt, intelligent writing, Sarah explores these questions and more with personal stories, cultural references and history, faith, and grace. In the process, she delivers wisdom for navigating the challenges, mysteries, and delights of friendship: why we need friendships with other women, what it means to be safe in relationship, and how to embrace what a friend has to offer, whether meager or generous.

Head to RandomHouse.com to learn more about The Friends We Keep. If you're interested in purchasing this book, you can put the title in the Christanbook.com box on the ride side of my blog. It's a great way to support our Christian authors.

I'd like to thank Amy at Random House for providing me with my book. Thanks Amy!!

Sarah Zacharias Davis is a senior advancement officer at Pepperdine University, having joined the university after working as vice president of marketing and development for Ravi Zacharias International Ministries and in strategic marketing for CNN. The daughter of best-selling writer Ravi Zacharias, Davis is the author of the critically-acclaimed Confessions from an Honest Wife and Transparent: Getting Honest About Who We are and Who We Want to Be. She graduated from Covenant College with a degree in education and lives in Los Angeles, California.

My sister-in-law and I really got into the Anne of Green Gables movies about 8 yrs ago. We talked about being "bosom friends". I liked that Sarah discussed this friendship in the book. I'd forgotten how Anne described that kind of friendship. I also enjoyed the other movies that she brought up that had to do with friendships.

For the most part, girls (women) really need friendships. Sarah covers different topic of friendships and what goes on in those friendships: gossip, jealousy, being there in the tough times & the good, friendships that only last a season, and the different levels of friendships.

The Friends We Keep made me look at my friends and how I view them. It also made me look at myself and what kind of friend am I. I have to admit that I could easily be a jealous friend. By the grace of God I haven't given in to that emotion, but I know that I could. I certainly try not to gossip, because with my luck, I'd be the one caught doing it. I also try to pride myself on being trustworthy. I want my friends, on any level, to know that if they tell me something, it doesn't go anywhere else.

I love when Sarah talks about the soul friendships of Celtics. She says, "It is our best friend who will scour the depths of our hurt and disappointment with us...Sometimes, even more important, it is our best friend - our anamchara - who sits int he unknowing and the fog with us, not pretending to know."

I have to admit, I have a hard time when I feel a space with one of my friends, any of them. It's tough remembering that friends have families, obligations, and other friends they need to spend time with also. I know that we need a healthy dose of space sometimes. It makes the coming together that much sweeter. I always cherish my times with my friends since we share so very little of it during this time of our lives.

Most of the friends I have now I've made as an adult, married, and with children. I don't have any friends, who are close anyway, who are without children. Unless one of us moves away, I have a feeling many of us will be lifelong friends. That's something for which I'm very thankful.