'Wounds from a friend can be trusted...' Proverbs 27:6
The 3rd step to win friends is 'be prepared to be vulnerable'. By this means be prepared to be hurt. No relationship is free from pain this side of eternity.
Friendship demand that you leave the comfort zone of base camp and confront an entirely new and unknown wilderness. There will be times when your words or actions are misunderstood, but stay with it when this happens. This is what friendship is all about - sticking closer than a brother. It is loving as you yourself are loved.
The 4th step to win friends is to 'love your friend enough to talk with him or her about anything you feel is not right.
One of the greatest tests of friendship is to ask yourself: Am I prepared to lose this friendship in the interests of God's kingdom? If not, then you haven't got a true friendship. You are in it for your own reasons, not God's. You are not a true friend.
Where you see wrong, deal with it, but do so lovingly, gently and firmly. You see, that's what friends are for - to help us see what we might otherwise be missing.
The 5th step to win friends is to 'allow your friend to have other friends also.' Don't suffocate your friend by being processive and demanding that he or she maintain just your friendship and no one else's. It is this attitude, more than any one thing, which is responsible for the death of friendships.
Give your friend the freedom to move out into other relationships, to make new contacts and see new people, and be happy for them when they do so. You will desecrate a friendhsip if you try to dominate it.
O Father, may i never suffocate a friendship by being processive. And help me to have such a secure relationship with You that I can risk losing a friend if it is the interest of that which is right. In Jesus' name i pray. Amen.
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