I take being a friend, very seriously. I do not lightly say that I am someone's friend. I also realize that although I may consider someone MY friend, I may not, necessarily, be their friend. I came to terms with this years ago when I realized that the person that I considered my best friend at the time had someone else that she considered her best friend. At first that hurt a bit but, as I said, I came to terms with it.
Since that time, I have had many friends, to whom I was very close, that were in turn closer to other people but that is okay with me because I had asked God to give me the friends that He wanted me to have. I have tried to be a good friend to all the people that God has put into my life.
With all of that in mind, I think that you may now understand where I am coming from with the rest of what I want to share today. You see, I consider God my friend but I have wondered if He considers me His friend. I have not just wanted to assume that He did because I have learned that it isn't necessarily true. Consequently, I had a hard time singing songs like I am a Friend of God because I just wasn't sure what He thought about it.
Thankfully, He is an awesome friend and He showed me what He thinks, a couple of Sundays ago. I was listening to a pastor in our church preach a very good sermon and in it he had us turn to John 15. I have read this portion of scripture many times before but God wanted to show me something that day and I'm very glad He did. In John 15, Jesus himself tells us what the qualifications are to being a His friend!!! I had never seen it that way before but right there it was. It says:
12 This is My commandment, That you love one another, as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are My friends, if you do whatsoever I command you. 15 Hereafter I call you not servants; for the servant knows not what his lord does; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known to you. 16 You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it you. 17 These things I command you, that you love one another. (KJV er)
Did you see it? He said that if you do whatsoever I command you then you are His friend! And what was it that He was commanding us to do? Love one another!!! I cannot tell you how much these verses set me free! To KNOW that I AM a friend of God really excites me!
I hope that this gives you as much comfort as it has me. May God richly bless you!
(Me and my dd, Tiffany on an easy to climb tree limb on vacation in VA in 2007.) These are my ramblings on homeschooling and whatever else comes to mind.
Counting Down
The Holidays are over and I'm not quite ready to start a new count down yet. Maybe I should start a counting up the number of days I've stayed on my "diet".
