FRIENDS

PROVERBS 18;24 A man that has friends must show himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.
Today my thoughts have been about friends and how important they are to us. I have been recovering these last 3 weeks from surgery and have been totally blessed by the love and caring from my friends, it has been a very humbling experience.
Friends play such an important role for us, we can give to them and we can receive from them, we can love and be loved, share our deepest thoughts and hear their deepest thoughts, laugh and cry together, share joy and pain .
Most of we girls would have spent a great part of our lives looking for that elusive " Best friend ". We have an inbuilt desire within us to seek out that soul mate..best friend..life long buddy. The sad part is that for some of us we never seem to find that person, we begin our hunt in the primary school play ground and when we finally think we have found the one.... our hearts are broken when they tell you one lunch time to go away they have a new best friend now. But never to be deterred we try again and again all trough school and beyond.
Then heaven help us !!! we grow up marry have children and are thrust into the world of "the mothers play Group " trying to find a whole new circle of friends to fit into. I f we thought the school yard was hard , it was only a mere walk in the park compared to hormonal new mothers. Our task to fit into this frightening play ground begins at first light preparing our baby in his finest outfit , packing the nappy bag being sure that nothing is forgotten , preparing ourselves in our slimmest looking clothes so we look like the most together hottest mamma in the room. Then off we go ready to walk into the unknown hoping that we will connect with these mums and develop a life long kindred spirit with at least one of them.
I spent many years wasting my time on trying to be the person that I thought other people would want me to be in order to have them want to be my friend, the joke is however that all I really had to do was be who God created me to be and just simply be their friend. I did not need to jump through hoops trying to be the sort of person who would appeal to others.. I just had to be me and use my talents that God had placed in me to love the women around me and in turn they would love me back.
I cant tell you the amount I times that I have allowed myself to be put in the position of walking away from women feeling completely shattered and unworthy to hold the title of being their friend subjecting myself to inane comments, and allowing Satan to scream in my ear "just go home you stupid woman , who would ever want to be your friend " I was leading myself to the slaughter each and every time because I was listening to the wrong voice time and time again.
The funniest part of all this however is that all along from the day I was born I had my best friend right there with me every day jumping up and down before me saying "pick me !!! pick me!!! " God was there all along, a truly faithful friend handing me unconditional acceptance and love.
He was right there the days I was sitting at home in the depths of loneliness just waiting and hoping that I would look to him and share my deepest thoughts with him. He was waiting for me to place my hand in the warm safe palm of his and feel truly loved. He was there in my deepest times of rejection whispering in my ear " No Janelle don't listen to them listen to me, hear my words , my truth, my love for you, spend time with me and I will show you how much I love you ".
Thankfully I can tell you that person is not me today. I know who I am, I know who God created me to be, I know the gifts placed within me to love and nurture those around me, I have set aside time with my "best friend " for him to whisper in my ear truth and not lies.
I have been exceedingly blessed to have learnt the truth of friendship.
Take the time my friends to stop and ask God who you are ? who he wants you to be to the people around you ? Because therein lies your answer to being a true friend to others . You are bringing friendship to the table not coming empty handed wanting to take friendship from others. “The world of the generous gets larger and larger – the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller” (Proverbs 11:24).
Micah 7;5 says ; " Do not trust a neighbor; put no confidence in a friend. Even with her who lies in your embrace be careful of your words." The prophet saw no safety or comfort ,but in looking to the Lord, and waiting on God his salvation. When under trials, we should look continually to our Divine Redeemer, that we may have strength and grace to trust in him, and to be examples to those around us.
Charles Spurgeon said. " I trust my soul in thy kind hands "
Who are you trusting with your soul ? God is the only one who will not damage your tender
heart and be your true faithful life long friend.