What About My Friend....????

Tonight as I was preparing my "planned" blog for the single ladies in regards to sexuality and dating after a week of Facebook observations; my OWN relationship hit a snag.  A simple conversation turned into a " OH NO YOU DIDN'T JUST SAY THAT!!!!"  I went from  a loving, Godly wife and mother to Bumquisha "I'm gotta cut you sucka in 0.00002 milliseconds!!!!!!!"   This is from the desk of a real wife.. Now, while the disagreement topic isn't really relevant,  through it I realized again how God has a way of teaching life lessons in the most unexpected manner.
Friends...How many of us have them?  Friends... How many can we depend on?  (Remember Whodini?)  Tonight I was redirected to think about FRIENDS......     FRIENDS.  Just to give you an idea of how loosely we use the term "friend".  My husband and I share six (6) children.  Our 14yr old  listed on facebook that he has 857 friends.  Interesting,  I know because I think I have only met about 25 parents.  The only teens that he can "hang with" and consider friends are those whose parents WE have met.   So if they are truly friends, it is a boring, noneventful, online-only friendship.  The rules in our house are strict in regards to going places with teens whose parents we don't know.

But in the adult sense of the word, I am glad that God granted me the love of true friends.  While my circle of friends is few; a far cry from the 857 of our child,  it is enough.  Just enough.  Perfect in fact.  Just who I need when I am in need.   Defining the meaning of a true friend will be done differently by anyone you encounter.  The definition will be based on past experience and present needs.  Some characteristics can include trustworthiness, loyalty, similar interests, integrity, dependability, reliability, and so forth.  Personally, I believe MY true friends have the characteristics I hold most dear; mutual respect, love, self reliance ( if I don't call you for a few days and no life emergency is occurring, we are still cool), and HONESTY.  If you notice, honesty is in capital letters because it's HUGE to me.   When involved in true friendship, each party is able to take the time to identify the level of importance each characteristic is to the OTHER party.
 Jesus was and is a True friend to us all.  When we take the time to evaluate what being a true friend means, I believe we will have no problem seeing His face. If you have some difficulties with defining what being a true friend is I will share with you some scriptures:  PICTURE THIS     Be Real-- Just as in Exodus 33:11 At the Tent of Meeting ....the Lord would speak to Moses face to face,as a man Speaks with his Friend.  Be consistent-- Just as in Proverbs 17:17 a friend loves at all times.. Be selective in choosing friends--Proverbs 18:24 shares a man(woman) of many companions may come to ruin but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Face to Face

Being HONEST With your Friend is not always  Easy 

 Tonight as I pray and thank God for my true friends, I will say a special thank you for my friend, ( now Judy, Connie, Traneisha, Lynne,  FeFe, 1st Lady Karyn, Veronica, Jeanne, Mellissa, Catalina don't get offended I love you all too) but Starlette, thanks for being real.  Tonight you had the tenacity to pull my coat tail and love me through my error.  Face to face share with me I was wrong and with the fruit of loving kindness point to my error and listen with the love and gentleness as we Christians are instructed to do.

I will leave you with this, before I go and apologize to my life partner, husband and friend, have you been a good friend today? Are you a true friend? If your friend was about to make a big mistake or even had had something stuck in her teeth, could you tell her?  Would she tell you?  Just something to think about and thank God for....Until next time, just a little note from the desk of a real wife.........