I am absolutely loving the Illustrated Faith June Devotional kit! It is just so gorgeous plus the devotional is amazing. I wanted to share an entry I did reflecting on the friends in my life who have shaped who I am.
Growing up, I was painfully shy, a late bloomer and had a really hard time making friends. Add to that the fact that I (still) don't enjoy a lot of things that are universally popular and I like things that are not mainstream and you get a perfect recipe for a very lonely girl. But thanks to the internet which has let me meet people who are my own flavor of weird and growing up and learning how to communicate better, I now have some really awesome friends!
The inspiration for this page is from Proverbs 17:17 "A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." The kit came with this cute little banner that gave my a color palette but I ended up not using it on this page. What God spoke to me in this verse was not about being grateful for my awesome friends (even though I am!) but that to be a good friend, I need to love at all times.
Being a good friend is hard. It takes a lot of time, effort and energy to build that relationship with someone and then be there for them. Jesus has to suffer and die just to be friends with us and that's the ultimate example of friendship. "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13 That's probably why most of us have a small group of really good friends within our larger group of more casual friends.
The real purpose of friendship is not having someone to talk to or hang with or any other benefits I might get from it. The purpose of friendship is to be a blessing in someone else's life.
Thank you for this its so refreshing to read this again. Even though its been said a thousand times over we still need to be reminded of the friendship we have first and for most ids with our darling Jesus :)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful thoughts on friendship. I'm a lifelong introvert with unique interests, too, and am so incredibly grateful for the many amazing friendships I've cultivated over the years online, too. It would be genuinely hard to imagine my life without such at this point.
ReplyDeleteMany hugs, my friend, and happy mid-June wishes,
♥ Jessica