This has been a topic that has meant a lot to me over the last few weeks, but especially the last few days.
Last week we started a new section of study with our youth group at church and the topic is Friendship. The Bible has a lot to say about friends, and the examples are there that we should surround ourselves with friends. Proverbs 11:14 and 24:6 tell us “… In the multitude of counselors there is safety.” (The NASB says there is victory).
There are so many more reasons than safety/victory to surround ourselves with friends. The last time I posted, God had used a friend to bless our family by saving us a ton of money. What a blessing this man was to us.
A few days ago while sitting in my office a close and “old” friend started texting with me. We had not communicated for awhile, and while the conversation was a lot of “trash talk” — we always had a lot of fun at each other’s expense– it led to me laughing my head off in my office, and having a hard time explaining to others in the building why I would be sitting in my office alone acting like I was ready to be locked in a padded room. Memories of things we had done together and ways we had ministered together came flooding back and blessed my soul again. He and I may not see eye to eye about a lot of things, but we encourage and lift each other up before God.
Last Saturday we had just planned on sitting around the house, maybe doing a little house cleaning, but not much else. Jenn Got a call in the morning asking us to go out on a boat for the evening. Some people from our church were going out and thought maybe we would like to join them — um yeah , maybe — Can you believe it, she did not even check with me first!?!?! What a wonderful blessing and time of fellowship we had. Other than running out of gas just 100 yards short of the dock, it was perfect — even that was alright. It was all pretty humorous in fact. Now I just have to get Jenn over the desire to live near a lake and own a boat (when she lets me get a motorcycle she can get a boat:)).
Even Sunday night after church we had another chance for fellowship with some dear friends. We put the kids at one table (we are still second guessing ourselves on this one) and had an “adult” table where we could just have some good conversation and fellowship. What a blessing!!
All that to say that we need to have friends around us. The examples are there all through the Bible. Moses had his Aaron and Joshua. David had his Jonathan. Elijah had his Elisha. Even Jesus had his twelve disciples, and from those he had three special men (Peter, James and John) that were his close friends.
One thing we have to remember about friendship is that it comes with responsibility. The Bible says in Proverbs 17:17 “A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” Proverbs 27:6 says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend…” Sometimes it is not easy to be a friend. We have to carry a friend through some rough patches, love them when they are really tough to love (thank you to those friends who have done that for me) and sometimes “wound” them.
Thank you God for the friends that you have brought into my life. Faithful friends that love me through it all, that “wound” me when it’s needed, and most of all are just there for the encouragement that each of us so desperately need but will never ask for. Help me to be the kind of friend that I should be.
