Skip to main content

Building Sunset Friendships


As the generations ahead of mine reach the sunset years, I've witnessed their need for friendship at this stage of life- real, true friendship. But these friendships aren't easily built during later years; we must invest in them now. 

 I want to take seriously the friendships in my life. But how? Again God's Word provides insight for this: A friend loves at all times, And a brother is born for adversity. (Proverbs 17:17). To be always loving is a high standard: Love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not boast. Love is not arrogant. Love is not rude. Love does not insist on its own way. Love is not irritable. Love does not keep a record of wrongs. Love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices with the truth. 
Love bears all things. Love believes all things. Love hopes all things. Love endures all things.(From 1 Corinthians 13:3-4)

 Needless to say, maintaining a friendship takes work. And requires a lot of prayer. I write this post because the Lord is convicting me. I'm not a good friend. He's shown me the importance of friendship, and I am taking small steps towards this.

 Ponder this- Who are the friends you forsee growing old with? How could you be a better friend? 

.

Comments

  1. ElaineJuly 17, 2015 at 4:40 PM

    I have pondered this issue as I have grown older. When we are younger we forge friendships in school or college, and then during the heady days of marriage and having babies. We didn't know what we were doing but we had each other! Now, my dear friends of those days have moved away, and though we keep in touch and see each other infrequently, I have few dear Friends near by. And new friendships are meeting different needs and desires in my life, and they are not as intense as when I was younger. Add to that, as we age, we have less energy to invest in a lot of friends! So I am left with few friends, and I am strangely OK with that. But should I be? I do not know, and so I ponder...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Carole RuffinJuly 17, 2015 at 5:14 PM

    Great point! Perhaps " sunset friendship " refers more to the depth of friendship than the quantity of friends.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for your comment!

Popular posts from this blog

Free From Doing Whatever I Want

Often we think freedom is being unshackled to do whatever we want. This is the greatest bondage though. Only in Christ can we be free from doing whatever self desires. To will against oneself is utterly impossible unless the Spirit of God is birthed in us. And when this happens, the war begins. The Spirit against the flesh, the flesh against the spirit-- before the Spirit entered it was simply self reigning. Now there's an adversary to my selfish desires who can conquer me as I can not. Oh praise the Lord for Him, who makes freedom possible, though not comfortable or easy, lest we think we no longer need Him. This breaking of self feels at times as though ripped apart within, tortured between desire and will. Yet the best freedom is within reach-- the abundant life that Christ offers. Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me. Oh if I only lived this way always! To live against selfish desires is to truly love-- only think of it, how much you could serve, how much you co...
Post a Comment
Read more

Unmasking The Gospel

L ike it or hate it, masks and other protective measures are here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. I’ve felt a “stuck in the middle'' attitude towards them with deeply opinionated friends on both sides. Through this I’ve found that there’s thoughtful information and well-meaning believers on both sides of the Covid response. When we take an “us versus them” mentality on such superficial issues, we are divided and inadvertently mask the Gospel-- dear reader, this shouldn’t happen! When we focus on all of the litany of rules and regulations, we're ignoring a burgeoning truth pulsing under the Covid crisis. The gospel doesn't have to be masked! There's no sign saying "No Gospel allowed" (yet!). When Paul was in prison he wrote a letter speaking of rejoicing because even though he was in chains, the gospel was not chained, the word of God was not chained. Now, the entire world fraught with a disease-- or fraught with the response to this disease-...
1 comment
Read more

Beware Of The Eternal Now

Nothing lasts forever, right? Well, nothing earthbound anyway. Of course God is forever. And so is the human soul. But circumstances, life experiences-- good and bad-- are all momentary. We read that   "the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever" (1 John 2:17). But sometimes we feel like we're in a forever moment. No matter how much life moves around us, a specific circumstance may feel like it will never change. These forever moments can be good or bad. I remember getting married the feelings of joy and contentment that immediately followed that I felt wouldn't change. Or when I graduated college, or after having my first child. These moments of joy I wanted to last forever. But hardships come and with them bad forever moments. Like arguments, difficult pregnancies, unemployment, and lost friendships. The longer I live the more I find my forever moments are difficult. I love the line in Laura Story's song ...
1 comment
Read more