BFF’s, do you know where this shortcut stands for? Best Friends Forever. I teach 7 graders and this BFF thing is not something small. It is a big deal in the lives of children, teenagers, and even adults. The knowing of belonging to someone as a friend, a best friend, having friends in your class, at sports, in church. And for girls, it’s a much bigger issue than it is for boys. Women are more sensitive, we often feel more insecure. We are very social beings, we like to interact and do things together. When you go shopping with a friend, you can talk all day long, when you have dinner with your husband it can be quiet after 15 minutes. Women even go to the bathroom together.
Examples of friendships
Friends can influence us, they lead, they help, their opinion matters to us. So friends are important to us and that makes it important who our friends are. In the Bible, we find different examples of friendships and some wise advice on how to pick our friends.
The most amazing friendship I find is the one between David and Jonathan.
1 Samuel 18:1 “After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself.”
1 Samuel 18:4 “Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt.”
1 Samuel 19:4 “Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father.”
Real friendship
The Bible says Jonathan loved David as himself and they were in one Spirit. Wow, that is what real friendship is about. Jesus said it himself, giving your life for your friends means real love. Appreciate your friend, let her/him know that they are important to you. Jonathan gave David what he needed, even his own things. Do we see the need of our friends? Are we generous when there is an opportunity? And Jonathan spoke well of David. Do you always try to see the good in your friend? How do you speak about them to other people? Speak highly of them as Jonathan did.
A God of relations
The Bible encourages us to have friends. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 “ Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up.” But sometimes life happens….we are busy working, raising our kids, keeping our household running, we have a full week schedule and the friendships that were once so important to us vanish to the background.
But our God is a God of relations, He wants us to have friendships to share life, to build each other up and show His grace towards another. He brings people in our lives to sharpen each other and keep each other on the good track. We are busy with urgent things, but sometimes we forget the important things.
The recipe for good relationships
So for good relationships, it is important to keep investing and stay emotionally involved. You need to invest time. With some friends that have a busy schedule we always bring our agenda when we meet so we can immediately plan our next get together because if we don’t our agenda’s will be full without any time together.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
Honor each other, give friends a place in your life. Treat your friendship as valuable. Something to cherish. My experience is, the less I see certain friends, the more superficial the contact gets. When you meet regularly its easier to be involved in each other’s life’s and share a heart to heart issues. The verse above in Ecclesiastes goes further with saying “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” A cord of three….meaning a relationship where Christ is the 3rd party. If you involve God in your friendship it will be even more valuable. We need friends that help us keep the right track, following Gods ways. When David fled for Saul one night Jonathan looked him up. 1 Samuel 23:16 “And Saul’s son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God.” What a beautiful example of how we as friends can help each other finding strength in God.
Let our friendships glorify God!
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