Friends

It is that time of year to pray for friends. This is really an annual post, but rather than keep reposting I prefer to be fresh! Who knows, maybe there is something new once in a while.

The first time of year where I begin to pray for friendship is during the winter when we're making our school choices. Never do I want the issue of relationships to be what drives our educational decisions--academically or spiritually. But of course, we all need people to walk through life with and my hope is that through the educational classes we select, friends will come forth.

In this age of community in all sectors of life, it can be a challenge to keep the focus on   identifying first with the Father, God. I want my kids' loyalty to be with Him and His word, as well as my own. Groups can change and my concern here is identifying so much with a group that we stop being discerning. We can find ourselves loyal to a group long after we should have left. This is seen in churches that go the wrong direction --people are so tied to it socially that they refuse to look at the serious issues that might be reason to break fellowship. For these reasons, I think approaching friends in the same way we'll look for spouses later is a good idea: pray while keeping our eyes firmly fixed on the Lord, and God will bring the increase.

The times we live in are dark and there are many unreliable 'Christian' beliefs infiltrating the church. In my mind, it is dangerous to encourage too much sentiment with those who disagree with what we hold as Truth. Our kids could feel torn between what we say versus their friends think, or worse, they can grow to be undiscerning about spiritual matters, likely developing the attitude so many believers have today, which is that we just can't know or be certain about things we really can be certain about. It is hard to disagree with people we love and spend a lot of time with. We see the erosion of morality with the homosexual movement. Someone believes it is sin until a friend or family member comes out of the closet...we have to be watchful against the forces of darkness that can weaken our resolve or cloud our judgement.

For these reasons I spend time in prayer annually for the relationships the Lord wants us all to have. There is only so much time to put in to relationships, and it seems that without careful thought, we can neglect the most important for those which are temporary. Likewise, with limited time, don't we all want to make the most of the relationships we are blessed with?

God first, immediate family next, and then we each must decide where to go from there. The size of one's family surely plays in to the time needed for 'immediate family', and the time the parents have to spend with each child and then the family as a whole. Other categories to consider: extended family, church body where you are a member, others who share your activities, others who educate as you do, people who do the same volunteer work as you....

Perhaps other people don't think on these things and just go about however time allows and wherever the kids want the time to go.

However you approach this, we can probably all agree that the company we keep says a lot about us and can impact our thinking tremendously.

For now,