Friendships

This coming Wednesday night we will start a brand new Ladies Bible Study.  It is called "We Saved You A Seat", by Lisa-Jo Baker.  I have cheated a little bit and went ahead and did some of the first weeks homework.  So far I am loving it.  This study is all about how to be a friend like Jesus.  It is based on how Jesus guarded His friends.  Prayed for them.  Protected them.  How friendship is not a casual thing to the Lord but very serious.  He takes friendship to the heart.  Do we?  Do I?  I want to but let's face it.  I don't.  We don't.  Sometimes friends make us weary and tired.  Sometimes I make my friends weary and tired.  We hurt one another.  We let each other down.  We disappoint each other.  And sometimes....we give up on each other and discard that friend.  The first thing this study tackles is that no matter what.....got that?  No.  Matter.  What......Jesus never, ever gives up on us.  Never discards us.  We are called to be like Jesus.  John 15:13 tells us to lay down our lives for our friends.  Just like Jesus.  Wow.  Would I do that?  For my husband?  In a second. For my children?  Yes ma'am.  For my grand babies?  In a skinny minute.  But for my friends?  That takes some serious and I mean serious consideration.  Don't be judging me....you would think twice too!  To love them that much.  I have some dear and wonderful friends.  Very dear to me.  I even call them my sisters.  This study is already teaching me how much I need to be a better friend but not only that ....I need to be a different kind of friend.  To let the walls I have so carefully built be torn down.  To allow them into my secret heart.  To desire to be part of their secret heart.  To not feel burdened by friendship.  That sounds very heavy and it is.  Friends can sometimes be a burden.  But it is one we are not meant to carry alone.  I need to learn to pray for my friends like Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane.  He earnestly and agonized over prayers forks friends.  How do I pray for mine?  How do you pray for your friends?  I am excited about this study and all that it offers to teach me as I lead the ladies through the weeks.  I have some unique plans for them in reaching out and making some new friends.  Hopefully, Jesus will use this study will touch their lives and hearts like He has already started to touch mine.