The Gift of Friendship

I'm totally cheating with the gratitude project because today's prompt is about expectations but I'm not writing about that. I'm writing about my friends.

This weekend I'm heading to OKC for a weekend packed with girl time. First off, I'll be meeting Amanda who blogs over at The Lady Okie. We both have so much in common (our faith, running, we both moved to OK because of our husbands) and I'm stoked to meet up with her. After that two of my best friends and my sister will be coming to OKC for a weekend filled with shopping, Indian Food, Cheesecake Factory (those don't sound good written next to each other, huh?) and lots of laughter.

I think know good friends are a God given gift. I'm blessed to have some of the best friends a girl could ask for. I'm blessed to have friends who live near and I'm blessed to have friends who live all over the globe. I love that I have friends globally but a piece of my heart is sad because I don't get to see them hardly ever. Yes, I'm thankful for Skype, Facebook, e-mail and every other technological thing we have to keep in touch but nothing beats a face to face hang out time.

I was thinking about friendships and about what God has to say about them and I thought I'd share. I'm sure you have heard most of this before but it's a good reminder.

The Be's a Good Friend

• Be Friendly - Reach out to people, say hi, be genuine and find out how they really are. Invest in people! I know it's a simple thing 'be friendly' but sometimes I forget to do that. 

Proverbs 18:24– A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly. 

• Be Sharp - To be a good friend you have to be willing to tell the truth even when it's tough. If you are a good friend you'll receive this truth and it will be a good round about circle. You know how iron sharpens a knife? It's like that.  

Proverbs 27:17 - Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

• Be Loyal - I can't say this one enough! Loyalty is so important. Be loyal to your friends through their best of days and their worst of days. I have friends that have consistently shared truth with me and loved me when I was far away from God and not living right. Their consistent love made a huge difference. I'm glad they stood by me instead of up and running, which trust me, would have been way way easier. 

Proverbs 17:17– A friend loves at all times. 

• Be God's Friend - Did you know God called Abraham his friend? I think we can be called that too. Lately I've been slacking on spending enough time in prayer and in the Word. When I started thinking about friendship for this blog post it came to my mind 'if Jesus were to talk to someone about me being his friend what would he say?' I talk about him a lot but I sure don't talk to him enough. How weird would that be if I was like "Hey, this girl says she is my friend. She talks about me all the time but doesn't talk to me much". I think that thought was a prompting from the Holy Spirit. God really does desire a friendship with us. He is a friend that sticks closer than a brother

Proverbs 18:24b– There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. 

I hope we are all encouraged to be a good friend. It's something we can always improve on. Do you have good friends? Are you a good friend?