Loving trusted friendships have helped me stay the course in my walk with God, marriage and family more than anything else. I don't know what I would do without my friends. When I am in an intense place in my relationships at home with my husband or children, my friends fill the void so I can do the right thing and stay right with God. Sometimes I have friction with my friends too, but we work it out. In "A World Waiting to be Born", M. Scott Peck displays insightful perspective on this.
According to Dr. Peck, "When nuns and monks used to come to see me for consultation, ninety-five percent of the time the first thing they wanted to talk to me about was "community." And ninety-five percent of the time what they meant by community was something like "Sister Suzie is driving me up a wall" or "I'm about to strangle Brother Thomas." Many have the fantasy that convents and monasteries are places of great holy tranquility, where the monks and nuns go about their day in unending, prayerful peace of mind. The reality is that they are ususally places of great struggle and tension and friction.
"But even though it is what they most frequently complain about, community is also perhaps the primary reason that nuns and monks join monasteries and convents. They know somehow, correctly, that they need the friction of community to polish them to refine them on their journeys of spritual growth... A marriage properly should be a marriage of two people gathered together for some purpose higher than the mere pleasure of being together: namely, to enhance each other's spiritual journeys."
Even when I don't like truth from my friends, I listen because they love me.
"Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend [to show rage or worthy purpose]." Proverbs 27:17 Then I thank God for them because they make me feel loved and secure even when I don't feel secure in my circumstances.
I give thanks to my God for you always when I mention you in my prayers... Philemon 1:4 Pray for God to reveal to you Holy Spirit inspired friendships that may already be in your life, friends who love you and are honest with you in a loving way. Then thank God for them. Go for it!
