Today, we continue on in our series about friendships. Friendships are worth it, despite the struggle to find them, to discern out which ones are healthy for us, and to maintain them over time and changes in our lives. We need friends, outside of our immediate family bubble. We need others to relate with, to support with, cry with, share joy with, and pray with. The ability to be vulnerable with someone else is a true blessing of godly friendships.
When we are looking for a guide to finding a true friend, a good place to start is the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5: 22-23 " But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." We should use the fruits of the Spirit to not only gauge ourselves as a friend to others, but also as a gauge of others as a friend to us. Are we pointing each other towards Christ within our friendship? Our friendships are about having fun while doing things together, but it should also involve hard truths that help us become more like the character of God.
"My best friend is the man who in wishing me well, wishes it for my sake." [Aristotle]
"Blessed are they who have the gift of making friends, for it is one of God's best gifts. It involves many things, but above all, the power of going out of one's self, and appreciating whatever is noble and loving in another." [Thomas Hughes]
"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, ‘You too? I thought I was the only one." [C.S Lewis]
"Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer." [Ed Cunningham]
As for myself, I am blessed to call many people 'my friend'. I do have a small circle of friends that are like my 'sisters and brothers', not just my sisters or brothers in Christ. My friendships are diversified in many different ways by age, ethnicity, religions, gender, distance apart, personalities, and temperments. I love to be around friends that are stronger in an area of the fruits of the Spirit than I am, especially patience. When I am around them and witness a patient, self-controlled moment, I am not only in awe but I am convicted. I know that I wouldn't have handled the situation with such grace and I have something to think about later and learn from it. These moments are blessings from God and are part of my sanctification.
May God bless you with friendships that give you joy, truth, and convictions that draw you towards Him each day.
