Thursday Devotional...2/21/13...LENT AND FRIENDSHIP

                                                                                     Lent and Friendship

I hope you received a text, email, phone call, or greeting on Valentine’s Day last week! I know there’s a friendship day somewhere in the year, but I like Valentine’s Day. I didn’t receive any goodies this year, but I did receive some kind words. There’s just something warm and cuddly about a holiday that reminds us to share the love.

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, the period of 6 weeks that leads up to Christ’s resurrection day, also known as Easter. Some of the people around me, those dedicated, disciplined, and devoted Christians who I love and admire, will have given serious thought to what they will be ‘giving up’ during Lent as a spiritual practice to think more of God and less of their own worldly habits or desires.

As I was considering these two days I was thinking how friendships, whether with our spouse, our parents, our siblings, or our friends, are a little bit like Lent. Because we care about someone, we choose to overlook, put up with, or ‘give up’ our right to be heard, or to be understood. By accepting others as friends, we ‘give up’ the right to try to change them. In friendship, when it is going well, we ‘give up’ our right to automatically take care of our own desires first by making them our priority and considering them and their needs. We might ‘give up’ our relaxing time on a weekend to help them move. We ‘give up’ our own problems for an evening while they pour their heart out. You probably didn’t even notice the last time you gave something up for a friend. It’s just a lovely way that healthy friendships can work.

The following 3 translations of the same verse in Proverbs is a beautiful example of how reading different versions can add clarity to understanding a scripture:

Overlook an offense

 and bond a friendship;

fasten on to a slight

and—good-bye, friend.

Proverbs 17:9

MSG

He who covers
and forgives an offense seeks love,
but he who repeats
or harps on a matter

separates even
close friends.

Proverbs 17:9
AMP

If you want people to like you,
forgive them when they wrong you.
Remembering wrongs can break up a friendship.

Proverbs 17:9 GNT

Dear Lord,
thank You for the reminder of another aspect of Your love for us through the blessing of friendship. Please help me to give up offenses and hurts when they come my way. Please forgive me when I have offended or hurt others.
In Jesus name, amen.

Written by
Mary Wilkins