Thoughts for Life: Friendships

Mary Southerland tells us, " Friendship is the catalyst for every other love and the foundation of every healthy relationship.

God created us to need each other. We need friends and we need to be a friend.

Over the past few weeks, we have examined the friendship between Naomi and Ruth, a relationship that illustrates vital keys to a healthy relationship.

One of the most important friendship keys is loyalty.

Ruth was loyal to Naomi. God honored that loyalty and used it to attract her future husband, Boaz.

“Boaz replied, 'I've been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before' ” (Ruth 2:11).

Boaz was struck by the loyalty of Ruth, realizing that she was the kind of woman he wanted to marry.

True friends are loyal and committed to each other. Here are some ways to build loyalty into friendship.

Don’t criticize friends to other people.
· Cheer at the successes of your friends.
· Encourage the strengths of your friends.
· Never use a friend’s weaknesses to your advantage.
· Overlook 'cracks' in the armor and 'tilted halos of friends.

Protect the heart of your friend by guarding your friendship with loyalty.

Let’s Pray

Father, I know that I really do need friends but often let the fear of rejection keep me from reaching out in friendship. I choose against that fear right now. I want to please and honor You by the way I love my friends. Help me to become the kind of friend that points others to You.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen.

"Entreat me not to leave you, or turn back from following after you; for wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. The LORD do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me." Ruth 1:16,17

Read Ruth 1:16-18, NIV

Segments from I Need a Friend Part 5

by Mary Southerland www.girlfriendsingod.com

September 7, 2011

“Thank God for you, good friend of mine,

Seldom is friendship such as thine;

How very much I wish to be

As helpful as you’ve been to me.” –Clark

Our Daily Bread
Aug. 17,’11

My friend, Lorraine, had been with me a week in Sept, when I had first posted this, helping me go through the process of recuperating from a hip replacement. I cannot tell you how grateful I was that she was willing to come and help me! I'm finding that friends are very valuable to me! They're given to help me have a walk that pleases the Father. I don't always see what I should do, so their advice challenges me to consider other alternatives.

As I meet with my lady friends, I'm learning to recognize my own faults, and what to do about them. It seems to be the way of the Father! Recognizing them and then confessing them brings the Lord's healing and peace. It doesn't seem to come any other way...what's surprising is that I seem to choose not to deal with inner thoughts that are troubling, instead of seeing they are detrimental to my witness as a Christian. Facing them with truth, or facing the person that has troubled me, is what will bring the victory and a right relationship.

Today’s 4th truth: If you are “born again”, you are saved by grace through faith. Eph. 2:8

Today's thought: Do not sit around and feel sorry for yourself! Ask God for a good attitude.

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