Friendship of Christians

This entire thing is in part influenced by my Mom, Jesus, the book I Kissed Dating Goodbye, and of course, the Bible. So here it is:

"Eros will have naked bodies; Friendship naked personalities."
-C.S. Lewis

What I want, and what we all should want in our own way, is friendship. For to me friendship is the greatest relationship created. The reason is quite vividly explained by what C.S. Lewis said. For our world, as I have spoke of before, incredibly encourages people to put on a persona. As we all know, our society and culture is corrupt. And with that, our morals become corrupt. What once was unethical, is now not only accepted, but encouraged. Our culture expects us to lie about who we are, what we like, what we wear, how we talk, they expect us to not be ourselves but rather whatever is on the screen, whatever looks good in the flesh, to portray that.

That is why friendship is so great. We are not bound by physical imperfection, that is not what sparks true friendship. Friendship is built upon two people, with a common interest enjoying each others company, and having a kind of relationship without compromise of them self. Friendship is the only relationship that isn't censored, revised, and pretested. It's straight forward. And that is what makes it so great! You get to learn who the person you are in a friendship with actually is.

Now I'm going to address something in context along side with this, that you may, or may not respect me for saying. Dating. Premature dating in high school. I'm sure you've heard Jadon going off on this before, but it is something that truly needs to be addressed. Before I full on address this I'm going to need to give you some back story if that's the right word.

God has all granted us freedom in many ways. And this may seem odd, but the most free part of your life, and possibly the part of your life that God can give you amazing opportunities the most, is when you are single. Because you have no one to worry about. In dating you are constantly worry about pleasing the other person. You are preparing three hours prior in front of a mirror for thirty minutes with that certain someone. And not only does it take away from other relationships, it takes away from your relationship with God. Because your attention is somewhere else.

That is why taking advantage of your singleness is important. You aren't bound by unsaid expectations. You have true freedom! But when you choose recreational dating there is a dissatisfying feeling that emerges because you are using the freedom selfishly, you are not giving to God what he deserves, but instead that devotion is given to someone else.

I just explained the bad things within dating and the whys, but what about friendship? (I'm sorry I did get a little off subject)

Friendship is when you don't have to care. When you like the person for who they are!

Okay, but here's what's important: Spiritual Relationships within Friendship

This is super important. The level of spiritual relations between two people in a friendship should not be limited, but also not limited to simply one person. What I'm saying is, you should care, love, and pray for the friend intensely like two Christians in a "relationship". Now this may seem weird. "Why should I care for my friend like he/she is in a "relationship" with me". Because that level of care and Christian love is what I want you to attain. Now here is the key: Don't limit this great care and love and prayer to just one person. If you do that than it can turn out to be a relationship. You need to have that same love and caring, that you care what happens to the person and you pray for them when they are in need unrelentingly as one in a "relationship" would do. Except that you would do that for more than one person.

You need to widen your gaze. In a relationship all the passion, and love, and care goes to one person. What you should do though, is give it to all your friends. The reason I bring up relationships at all is just because of they way the two people care for each other and that it is the only model you will understand. What I am trying to say, is attain an attitude to care for each other immensely. Don't pray for them through obligation, but because you want to, because you feel you need to. This is what you should shoot for. The whole thing of comparing it to dating might be odd to you. And the caring won't be exactly the same as that, so I'm sorry there did need to be some clarification there, but using that as a model, you should even surpass that in your Christian love for one another, not for only one person, but for all around you, both Male and Female, that you call your friends.