Friendship. It’s truly a ministry in and of itself. As a frequent mover, often being transported across state lines, friendship has taken on a whole new meaning for me. When you’re new, those old friends who stay in touch online are a gold mine. But you don’t have to move in order to walk the journey and ministry of friendship. You simply slip into the title of “friend” and let the Lord lead.
Will you join me today at (in)courage as we talk about Iron Sharpening Friendships? I’d love to have you, friend.
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I commented over at (in)courage too, Kristi – but wanted to just tell you how blessed I was by your words. Not only as a reminder of treasured friendships, but also in being nudged to be the one who is willing to invest and reach out when I see friends in need. Friendships can be challenging when you’ve been in the same place all your life, so that fact that God has given those unique ones that stand the test of time and distance is such a gift. Thank you for sharing your sweet and gracious words with us. Blessings, friend.
Oh those nudges…they are sweet encouragement to the one receiving them. Your comments, as well, have been a blessing to me, Tiffany. Thank you, my friend. Keep spreading His aroma through your friendships.
Hi Kristi! Thank you so much for sharing your words here and on (in)courage. It’s great to have you, and we so appreciate you bringing a piece of (in)courage right here to your blog!
Anna Rendell
Social Media @ (in)courage
Anna, many thanks to you and the others at (in) courage for opening your doors to these words on friendship. Friendship truly is a ministry that can bring glory to God.
Kristi, you are an iron sharpening friend to me. Thank you for blessing me by reaching out and being that friend who says “me too.” Thank you, Kristi, for sharing your heart at #IntentionalTuesday on Intentionally Pursuing. : )
Crystal, as you well know, there are many “me too” situations in my life. 🙂 Thank you for your encouragement and visit.
Hi Kristi, I’m visiting from Holly Barrett’s Testimony Tuesday.
Thank you for your sweet words of encouragement. I have a iron-sharpens-iron friend and I do not know where I would be without her.
It’s wonderful to have an accountability partner in His word. Blessings to you.
Hi Michelle. I praise God for your friend and am thankful she is blessing to you. Your visit is a blessing. Thank you!
It amazes me how very similar we all are, walking through much of the same struggles. An iron sharpens iron friend is priceless and sometimes turns out to be someone unexpected. God knows who we need more than we know who we need. Thank you for your words.
You are right, Damarise. God does know. 🙂 Thank you for stopping by, your visit is a blessing to me.
I have found Christian women to be some of the most unfriendly people I have ever known. I don’t want this to sound persecuting…truly it is not meant that way. I simply do not understand how Christians can speak so much of love and yet come off sounding so judgmental. It is my belief that we must learn to speak the language of each other if we are to be able to get along. There is a difference between being friendly and being friends. In re-reading this I realize that because of the shortcomings of communicating over the internet like this I may come off sounding offensive. I truly do not mean this in that way. It is something I struggle with and seek to understand better.
I’m so glad you came by and have commented. I am sorry that you’ve experienced unfriendliness. It is a heavy burden when its weight is thrust upon us, oftentimes unknowingly. Consider yourself welcome here, all unfriendliness is set outside the door. Gosh, I wish we could sit and chat in person. We’d find where we relate and would likely have a conversation full. By the way, mind if I ask…are you a Christian as well? (I wasn’t certain from your comment and found myself curious. ‘Course, you know what curiosity did to the cat! lol) Blessings to you, prayers are sitting at the Almighty’s throne as well.
I read this post today, and I completely get where you are coming from and why you would feel the way that you do. My heart hurt for you because I could feel your pain through it. I could feel the hurt that others have left upon you. Some of the most challenging relationships that I have had are with people from the church. That being said, it wasn’t until I started to view the behavior through a different lens that I became more understanding of their behavior. We all come from different walks of life. We carry battle scars from relationships. We are molded and shaped from our experiences. The one common thing we have as Christians is that we believe that Jesus dies on the cross for our sins. It does not make us healed from the past. It does not erase who we are. Some people are changed through this experience, while others are still a broken mess just trying to get by. People are human. We all fall and fail daily. As Christians, we strive to try to be more Christ like, but fall short each day because of our human nature. Just like people that are not Christ followers can be bad friends, and unloving, so can we. We talk a good game of love, and try to show that through our lives, but far too often practicing what we preach is harder than it looks. I think the key here is to understand that we are all broken people living in a broken world. We have hurts, scars and pasts that have changed us. Many women have so many insecurities that they are afraid to open up and take what is “friendly talk” into a genuine friendship. In turn, they talk a good game and keep things superficial. If you want to talk more about this, I would love to talk with you.