Friends...

Friends…

Today’s Scripture: Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. John 15:13

My daughter and her friend (they are in 4^th grade) have been having a little friend trouble.  Girls…big sigh…hormones beginning to run amuck, and emotions running even higher! They were BFF (best friends forever) when all of the sudden, in literally one day, they decided they weren’t meant to be friends anymore.  Of course both sets of parents are standing scratching our heads trying to get to the root of the non-BFF’s that happened overnight.  What makes this even more tricky is they are in the same school class, carpool, and I often watch her after school until her parents arrive home from work.  Needless to say, it has made for some tense moments lately during the “silent” (and once chatty) drives to and from school each day, and at our home before her parents pick her up.  Today I could cut the tension with a knife as I drove along.  I decided to play a little game with them and required each to tell the other why they wanted to be friends in the first place, what they loved about each other, and what they loved to do together as friends.  The first question was rough and I had second thoughts about beginning this little learning game in the first place.  But as they spoke aloud to one another why they liked each other, the ice began to melt and the smiles returned to their faces.  I had them hug once they got out of the car; and they ran upstairs to have a Popsicle and play.  Have you ever had a friend hurt your feelings so deeply that you felt it impossible to forgive them and be BFF’s again?  It is difficult, to say the least.  When we put our hope and trust in other human beings, whether it is our friends, spouses, children…we are usually disappointed at one point or another because they are just that… HUMAN.  Even Jesus was disappointed with his friends/disciples when He went to pray in the garden of Gethsemane in His final hours before He was betrayed by one of His own (Matthew 26:36-46 paraphrase mine).

I had a friend hurt me many years ago, and it ended our friendship.  Then one day, I began to pray God would somehow bring her back into my life so I could minister to her as a follower of Christ.  And He did, right there in the electronics isle of a SAM’s Wholesale Warehouse.  I have now reconnected with her and have indeed been able to give her godly counsel as she walks through a life trial that often feels just too big for her to comprehend.  Life is hard…we desperately need to lift one another up, especially as Christian Sisters! If you have a friend who you have been hurt by, or maybe you have been the one who hurt another; I ask you to step out in faith and make things right between the two of you.  Pick up the phone, send an email or text, just do something to reconnect… There is no greater love than that which gives expecting nothing in return.  Let God fill your cup up, and then…what you receive from everyone else will just be overflow! Besides, God only fills you up with the best most expensive stuff the universe has to offer…the Holy Spirit!