Simple joys

Friendship - a treasure for life

The simple pleasure of being a friend and having a friend.  Do we ever really count our blessings that God had created such an outlet for us?

The other day, I had a simple choir to do, go stop by a stamping store to pick up my order.  But as I was talking to a friend, she decided she wanted to come too.  So I took her with me and we ended up having dinner and making an evening out of it.  A mid-week break, a time for us.   It was just "nice" to forget about the woes of the day and share our joys over the meal.  Nothing major or pressing, just chatting and enjoying each other's company.

And then I was thinking of another friend who I'm willing to bend over backwards for to help her out (well, I do that for all my friends!).

Friendship, what does that really mean?  Well, I can't say it any better than what I found here written by Pamela Pauley-Perreault.

Friendship to me means wanting to give more than you receive.
Wanting to share whatever you can to make someone's life easier.
If you have a whole donut and your friend has none, it means sharing your donut, even though you may still be hungry.

Friendship means giving love. It means saying I'm here for you.
It means sharing not only the good times, but the painful times in another's life, too.

Friendship also means being able to silently stand there and lending a shoulder of strength.

Friendship means trust.

Friendship means unconditional acceptance, regardless of race, creed, religion, handicaps or background.

Friendship means helping ease the loneliness in life.

Friendship means saying hello, giving a smile, sharing hope.

Friendship means being able to laugh together,
to cry together, to pray together.

In the cyberworld, as in our daily lives, friends may come and go. Sometimes you are betrayed by those you trust. Take from your friendships and memories the good, keep them close, and discard the unpleasant, painful memories. To quote a trite old phrase, "ships that pass in the night" is what we essentially are in each others lives - each with a purpose for a particular time. Be guarded in your friendships, however, especially in the cyberworld. Many people live in fantasy worlds and it is best to keep those relationships in that concept - allow them to be what they "want to be" rather than what "you would like them to be." Enjoy the fun, the friendship, and take it with a grain of salt. And, enjoy those friendships that are sincere and lasting - a true friendship is a treasure for life.

~Pamela Pauley-Perreault

And as God says about friendship:

The Bible is not silent when it comes to the subject of friendship. The word "friend" is found about ninety times in the Bible. In the first place, the Bible says, "A man that hath friends must show himself friendly" (Prov. 18: 24). Some are too distant to form friendships. There is great value in friendship. "Two are better than one," wrote the wise man (Eccl. 4: 9). A true friend will stand by, even in times of trouble. "A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity," the Bible says (Prov. 17: 17). To the converse, the Bible speaks of false friends when it warns, "Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint" (Prov. 25: 19). There are some people that are not desired to be friends. For instance, "Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go" (Prov. 22: 24). A true friend will tell us when we are wrong. Hear the Bible, "Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful" (Prov. 27: 6). Genuine friends must be cherished and not forsaken (Prov. 27: 10).

Jesus is the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (Jn. 3: 16; 1: 14). Yet, Jesus offers man his friendship. Jesus said, "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you" (Jn. 15: 14). Jesus is the ultimate friend of man. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (Jn. 15: 13). Jesus tasted death for every man and shed his blood for the remission of man's sins (Heb. 2: 9; Matt. 26: 28).

True friendship is one of the great gifts of life. As we saw, man in his friendship with Jesus, must obey Jesus (Jn. 15: 14). We must believe, repent, confess Christ's deity, and be baptized (Jn. 8: 24; Lk. 13: 3, 5; Rom. 10: 9, 10, Matt. 10: 32; Mk. 16: 16). Jesus' friendship is unequalled!

So, I see friendship as a true gift and treasure to be relished and held with great care.  For a true friend, although hard to find, it worth keeping!

Talk about friends, just as I was really to close this blog, my friend calls me out of the blue just this moment to volunteer to come help me today to help clean and sort my craft room.  Now that is true friendship to be willing to climb (literally) into that heap! 

....I am truely blessed!

Here's to a bright beginning....

I've been pondering the thought of creating a personal blog for some time and I think now it's time.  I look in on a few of them out there and although I can understand wanting to pour out your feelings to get them out, I never really wanted to do a "whine session" for myself.  Even when I was a teenager and would try to keep a diary, and then years later when I would try to start a journal, I had a real hard time putting my feelings of hurt and anger down in writing.  I understand the concept, and when I'm hurt or angry, I have written it down then I destroy it.  I wouldn't want anyone else to see it.  Why hurt people who read it any more than what I was feeling for the five seconds of my moment of time.

Instead, I have tried to keep a Joy Journal through the years.  This is a place where even in the hardest of times, I can find a simple pleasure or joy to focus on.  And on days where it's just so bad I can't even see that, I can look back on the days where I did see it.  However, since I'm a very busy Single Mom of three teenagers (and work very hard at shielding that adolescent attitude!) I find it very hard to sit down to write and ponder.  (That's why I do the artistic work, for a stress reliever and creative release.)

So my thought, is that with this tool, it would be much more creative and easier to do in a blog.  And when I die, I would much rather leave this as a legacy to my children and descendants than my troubles and woes and to possible be the cause of hurt feelings that they would have no way of knowing what the true thought behind them were.  They can see the good things about me and how life is really not all that bad when you live it!

So this is what I will attempt to do.  These will be my thoughts, my view on life,  and my God, and the world around me.  And if it give you any pleasure, then all the better!

BTW, I've always enjoyed Photography, Iam an amateur photographer (thanks to my Daddy!), so you may even see a glimpse or two of that here as well.