Friend: March 10, 2010

March 10. TODAYS WORD FOR WEDNESDAY MARCH 10, 2010

FRIEND

DEFINITION:

A person attached to another person by feelings or affection; a person on intimate or friendly terms with another; a person who gives assistance; a supporter or well wisher.

SCRIPTURE:

A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18: 24.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

It is important before you choose your friends that you know what qualities you are looking for in a friend. Make sure you take time to really know the person you are considering being a true friend before you choose that person as a friend.

It is also important for you to know the difference between a friend and acquaintance. You can spend a lot of time with an acquaintance and not consider that person a friend who you trust and confide in.

Tell me who your friends are, and I will tell you who you are. All of us want friends in our lives and some seem to have many more than others. We develop friends in the activities we are involved in on a regular basis. Some of the locations were friendships are developed is at your work place, your church and your neighborhood.

Your children will develop friends at school, at their church and through sports or other activities. As parents you need daily communication with your children to make sure that they are choosing the right friends. Children need counsel today on choosing their friends. When you listen carefully to your child concerning their friends you will pick up comments of concern that should serve as red flags to you. We advise you to be slow in choosing a friend and to advise your children the same and then make sure you realize that if the friend you have chosen is a loyal and true friend then be a friend, in return, that is loyal and true.

William Penn said that a true friend advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously and continues to be a friend unchangeably. Your actions, words and interests will attract similar type friends to you. Be sure you know your friend well before you choose to have them as a close friend that you can share your concerns with.

When you develop a real friend make sure your actions and words keep that person as a friend and make sure their words and actions match yours. Do not commit errors that will hurt relationships. These two verses from Proverbs give us excellent thoughts and even guidelines in choosing friends.

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. Proverbs 17:17. A good friend often treats his or her friend better than one of his or her own family member

Do not forsake your own friend or your father’s friend, nor go to your brother’s house in the day of your calamity; better is a neighbor nearby than a brother far away. Proverbs 27:10

In the scripture verse that we have written above from Proverbs it closes with these words: “but there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.” That friend is Jesus and He is a friend to all that claim His name as a friend, Lord and Savior. We do need to be reminded that we can lose Jesus as a friend when you neglect Him just as you would your friend in this world.

Friends need daily communication with each other and Jesus requires the same from us. We communicate to Him through prayer and he communicates to us through our reading of His Word. Friends in this life will come and go but Jesus will be your friend for eternity.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Matthew 22:37.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”

PRAYER:

Thank You for being my friend. Help me to stay true to You every moment of every day. Thank You for leading me to friends that I can trust in this world. Help me to be a witness to these friends of Your love and friendship with me. Help my children to choose friends that honor You and that have a good influence on them.