Proverbs 27: 17 As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.
I know that we often plead with the people we love to “Never change,” and we tell them, “Don’t try to change me,” but good friends, the best kind of friends are supposed to change. And, they’re supposed to change you.
Now, true friends don’t try to make you pretend to be someone you aren’t in order to impress even more snooty folks, but you and your friends ought to be able to grow up--- together.
It’s natural and good for your friends to miss you if you move away, but genuine friends aren’t so covetous of your attention that they sabotage your opportunities for success just because success means less of your time for them.
Friends, true friends, want your marriage to work so that you’ll be happy. Friends, true friends, not only understand the need for you to have some fun, but they also understand the need for you to have a job.
The best friends remind you of your common bonds, the times, and trials that shaped each of you; but they also encourage you (and genuinely rejoice for you) to pursue your individual destiny even as they pursue theirs.
The best kind of friend knows your struggles to maturity and responsibility because they live those struggles, too.
They don’t expect you and you don’t expect them to walk the exact same path at the exact same pace, but you each encourage the other to walk, to progress, to mature, to get better, to be sharper.
Proverbs 27: 17. In my kitchen is a set of red-handled kitchen knives. That set includes a butcher’s steel. A butcher’s steel is exactly that, a steel stick on which I can sharpen my knives right there in the kitchen. Thing is though, the knives are made of steel, too. So, little by little as the sharpening steel scrapes off the dulled edge of the blades to make them sharp again, the blades also scrape off the sides of the sharpening tool, making it more and more pointed as well. The continual contact changes both.
I know that we often plead with the people we love to “Never change,” and we tell them, “Don’t try to change me,” but good friends, the best kind of friends are supposed to change. And, they’re supposed to change you.
Now, true friends don’t try to make you pretend to be someone you aren’t in order to impress even more snooty folks, but you and your friends ought to be able to grow up--- together.
It’s natural and good for your friends to miss you if you move away, but genuine friends aren’t so covetous of your attention that they sabotage your opportunities for success just because success means less of your time for them.
Friends, true friends, want your marriage to work so that you’ll be happy. Friends, true friends, not only understand the need for you to have some fun, but they also understand the need for you to have a job.
The best friends remind you of your common bonds, the times, and trials that shaped each of you; but they also encourage you (and genuinely rejoice for you) to pursue your individual destiny even as they pursue theirs.
The best kind of friend knows your struggles to maturity and responsibility because they live those struggles, too.
They don’t expect you and you don’t expect them to walk the exact same path at the exact same pace, but you each encourage the other to walk, to progress, to mature, to get better, to be sharper.
One day you’ll look up and you’ll look back and say, “We’re not like we used to be.”
Have friends who will respond, “No. We’re better, and we’re better friends, too.”
----- Anderson T. Graves II
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church
Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Rd.,
Montgomery, AL 36116
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