by BlondieWrites on September 9, 2009
This is something that was sent to me by a friend a few years ago, after we had words. It wasn’t long afterwards that he went home to be with the Lord. I’ve always been thankful that we made up before he died.
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Two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey, they had an argument; and one friend slapped the other one in the face.
The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand:
Today my best friend slapped me in the face.
They kept on walking, until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath.
The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him.
After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone:
Today my best friend saved my life.
The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, “after i hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?”
The friend replied “when someone hurts us we should write it down in sand, where winds of forgiveness can erase it away…. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it.”
Learn to write your hurts in the sand and to carve your benefits in stone.
They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them.
by BlondieWrites on September 2, 2009
A man was exploring caves by the seashore. In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of little hardened clay balls. The little clumps or balls of clay didn’t look like much but they intrigued the man, so he took the bag out of the cave with him. As he strolled along the beach to pass the time of day, he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could.
He thought little about it until he dropped one of the little balls and it cracked open on a rock. Inside was a beautiful, precious stone! He couldn’t believe his eyes! Excited, the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls. Each contained a similar treasure. Presumably hidden by pirates many years ago, he found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so balls of clay that he had left. Then it struck him. He had been on the beach a long time and he had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. He knew they would now be impossible to ever find again. Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands. He had just thrown away a fortune!
It’s like that with people. We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and we only see their external covering of clay. The person doesn’t look like much from the outside; they aren’t beautiful or sparkling so we discount them as being of little or no value. We see that person as less important than someone more beautiful and stylish or well known and wealthy. The sad reality is we haven’t taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside.
There’s a treasure in each and every one of us and we are all valuable to God. If we take the time to get to know others, we will often see the clay begin to peel away and a brilliant gem begin to shine. May we not come to the end of our lives and find we have thrown away a fortune in friendships, simply because the gems were hidden just beneath the surface. May we see the people in our world as valuable as God sees them.
by BlondieWrites on August 30, 2009
How to Recognize a Friend
Is the Person Who Says They are Your Friend Really a Friend?
This is something I wrote back in May of 2007.
Proverbs 18:24 says, “A man that hath friends must show himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”
Over the course of our lives, we run into an untold amount of people. Some people boast of the number of friends they have, wearing the number like a prized badge on their clothing. But what is a friend really?
A friend isn’t someone that we just put a name to a face and know a few details about. That’s an acquaintance, someone that we know of, but we don’t really know. It’s important to clarify the difference in a friend and an acquaintance because the two are very different. To have an acquaintance turn into a friend would be wonderful. But to have a friend become only an acquaintance would be a heartbreaking loss.
So how do we know who is a friend? How do we recognize them? How does a friend stand out from the throng of people that call themselves our friend, but yet really have no clue as to what a friend really is?
Friends aren’t clones of each other. They disagree on things. They don’t always see eye to eye on issues. They might have different religious beliefs. They might be years apart in age or they might be the same age. They might come from totally different backgrounds or lifestyles. So what binds them together in such a way that they become friends?
Someone who is a friend puts their friend first. They don’t consider themselves when caring for their friend. They think of the welfare and well being of their friend above their own needs. A friend listens and they encourage their friend to talk if they want to talk, and they are just there when no words are said or needed. They give new meaning to caring, because they don’t talk about caring for someone, they show it and practice it.
A friend doesn’t remind their friend of their past or how many times they failed and messed up. A friend reminds their friend that they are special and that they are loved, as they are, even when the friend doesn’t feel so loved or special. A friend doesn’t judge their friend, but neither do they tell them a wrong is right or okay. And most of all, a friend often knows their friend as well or better than the friend knows themselves.
Someone who isn’t our friend will walk away when the storms of life hit. In fact, they will not just walk away but rather run away as fast as they can. They don’t want to hear about our problems and they don’t want to be burdened with us. A friend won’t run away, they won’t turn their backs when we are at our worst, and they won’t leave us when they find out ugly details about our past. Someone who isn’t our friend will turn away in a heartbeat, and no doubt blame you for their turning away.
Someone who isn’t really a friend cannot possibly understand you because they don’t know you. Sure, they might know your name and a few details about you. But they don’t know you. A friend knows you, they understand you, and they care for you like no one else does.
As time moves on, a friend becomes more than a friend, the friend turns into family, someone that you simply cannot imagine your life without. They do indeed stick closer than a brother (or sister), they become a part of you. The idea of them not being a part of your life is unimaginable. And how did they become such a meaningful part of your life? They were a friend, they showed themselves friendly, and the friend became family.
When a person boasts of having so many friends, an untold number of friends, it doesn’t impress me because they don’t obviously know what a friend is. When a person is honored and blessed to call someone their friend, that does impress me, because that person knows what it’s all about.
by BlondieWrites on August 27, 2009
Hearts get broken. It’s one of the things that we face in life. Whether our hearts are broken by the loss of a loved one through death, a breakup with a boyfriend or girlfriend, a marriage shattered by cheating, a divorce, the loss of a friend… a broken heart hurts. Where once was a heart filled with joy and love is a heart that is torn, shattered, broken, in dispair. Then we are left wondering how to go on, what to do, how to make it through each day.
There is no doubt that a broken heart leaves a person also broken. Often after a broken heart, we don’t want to try again, we don’t want to have a reason to go on, we see only more hurt in the future if we trust again or open our hearts up again. Often we just give up. Our lives become not living, but a mere existance.
Having a broken heart isn’t the end, though. It doesn’t mean life is over. It does mean hurt, yes. It does mean pain, yes. Loss and grief do hurt! But I am here to tell you that there is hope, there is reason to go on, there is reason to start over, there is reason to live and be happy again.
God heals hearts! He doesn’t promise us we won’t go through pain and grief and sorrow. But He does promise to never leave us. A broken heart can be mended, and it can be healed. God is the Great Healer. He can fill our hearts again with joy and laughter and happiness. We just have to open up to Him and let Him in. And where He is, there will also Love be.
When the trials of life get us down, we have somewhere to turn. We can turn to God. When we put our hearts out there loving and caring, and our hearts get broken, God is there to put us back together again, to heal us, to make us whole again.
This life isn’t perfect. And things are going to happen that tear at our hearts. There is just no getting away from that in this life. Accidents happen, death calls, people leave us, people use us, people hurt us… hearts get broken. But if we let God lead us, if we trust in God, if we allow Him to heal us, He will heal our hearts.
I know that God heals hearts, because He has healed mine. I didn’t do it. No human did it. God healed my heart and he will heal yours too. Just let Him in.
by BlondieWrites on August 18, 2009
Today, when surfing the web, I happened upon this, and it really hit home with me.
A blessed thing it is for any man or woman to have a friend; one human soul whom we can trust utterly; who knows the best and the worst of us and who loves us in spite of our faults; who will speak the honest truth to us while the world will flatter us to our faces and laugh behind our backs; who will give counsel and reproof in the day of prosperity and self conceit; but who, again will comfort and encourage us in the day of difficulty and sorrow when the world leaves us alone to fight our own battles as we can.
In the past few months, I have been going through a lot of private battles, a time that I needed someone to just be there. But no one was there. In the past, I had a close friend that I could and did share with, someone that I could talk to, my best friend. Life took the friend away from me, and I was left with a lot of emotions… hurt over the loss, anger that a friendship could be tossed aside so easily, angry that after being there for so long for the friend that when I needed someone I was avoided for months, and most of all wondering why I put so much trust into a human being.. who after all is only human.
And for whatever reason, I happened upon a site today that had the above passage. It opened my eyes to something I know but let fall away.. that we have only one true Friend, and that is God. People will always let us down, leave us and abandon us when we aren’t needed anymore, forget us, use us. To put total trust in a human is nothing short of a mistake. If we put our trust in a person or persons rather than in God, then we are only asking to be hurt because a person will simply never always be there. Sooner or later, they leave. God never leaves. He never leaves us alone.
When I saw that passage today, it made me realize why I have had such private battles in the past few months….99% of the battle was me not going to God and trusting Him to take care of everything. I was so busy being upset and hurt that a friend was avoiding me, upset over the loss of the closeness I once had with the friend, that I totally lost sight of the one Friend who was just waiting for me to go to Him… God.
If your heart is crying out for someone to be there, someone to listen, someone to really care… then cry out to Jesus. He doesn’t just hear, He listens. He always has time for you. He isn’t too busy with other things. He doesn’t leave and abandon you. He isn’t a fair weather friend.. here while he needs you but gone when you need him. He’s what a Friend is… in it for the long haul, our most Precious Possession.
