Friend Planning
Theme for this Week: Building Relationships to Last
Tuesday, April 30, 2002
 1 of 1
Key Bible Verse: The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense (Proverbs 27:9). Bonus Reading:Proverbs 20:5
If you wait until you have free time or until your work is ended to make meaningful friendships, it's probably never going to happen. Friendships have to make their way on to your planning calendar.
I have two or three friends who live at a distance. We have to schedule meeting time in their city or mine or someplace in the country where our schedules take us. We agree to spend the better part of a day together, usually sitting in a restaurant or walking in some park or country place. We talk about what we've read, the issues we're facing, the questions we're asking. We catch up on our marriages, our view of life, our hopes for the future. We speak of feelings and fears, dreams and disappointments. We pray together, laugh, weep, complain, and reminisce together. We've worked hard to develop a freedom to be truthful. We do reality checks on one another.
When I told one of my friends that I wished someone would occasionally ask me what Jesus was saying to me, I began to get occasional phone calls in which, when I'd lifted up the phone, the first words were, "So what's Jesus saying to you today?"
Gordon MacDonald in When Men Think Private Thoughts
My Response: Here's how I'll be purposeful about cultivating a significant friendship:
Thought to Apply: Friendship is like a bank account. You can't continue to draw on it without making deposits.
Source unknown
Adapted from: When Men Think Private Thoughts (Nelson, 1996).
Copyright © 2002 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
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Enable me, Lord, to forge human relationships that mirror Your faithfulness.
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