Friend to Friend

Some girlfriends from church met at Color Me Mine last week. It is one of those places where you can paint a piece of pottery, they fire it, and you end up with, hopefully, something pretty to enjoy for a long time. We painted our pieces last Thursday evening, Ladies Night at our Color Me Mine, and had to wait a full week to pick up our pieces. You should have seen us; grown women giggling like third graders as we opened our carefully wrapped treasures (yes, we celebrated our artistry at Starbucks!).

This is a sample of the results of our efforts. Of course, the big green plate was made by yours truly. I can't do anything small! I really love the plate, but I love what I plan to do with it even more. For the next year, I hope to pass this from one woman in my church to another. I want the plate to be filled with a homemade treat or two and a note of blessing to the recipient asking her to pass it on to another sister in our church in the same way she received it. The names of the nine women who came to our first ever painting night are permanently recorded in this plate. Next April, I want to have another night like this one and make another plate. I hope to be able to write twice as many names on that one because even more women enter our circle of friendship! Then, I'll get another plate going, and so on, and so on. Doesn't that sound like fun?! My intention is to encourage women at my church to reach out to each other in a simple way. They will find that it is appreciated more than they would expect.

We all long for friendship, but many of us don't know how to even begin the process of making friends. As women, we tend to over think stuff; we see a woman glance away when we look at them and immediately decide she doesn't like us. Maybe she didn't see us! We approach someone to begin a conversation and they are not very talkative. We assume they don't want to talk to us. Maybe they're tired. Maybe they are not very good at smalltalk. What better way to break the ice than with a plate of fresh made banana bread and a note of encouragement!

I chose the verse on my plate on purpose. Proverbs 27:17, As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. I used the New Living Translation because the wording seemed more poetic for my plate. Other translations translate the latter part of the verse, so one man sharpens another. The word translated "another" is what captured my attention.

It is the word ~ynp, transliterated Paniym, pronounced paw - neem'. Trying to pin down what the word means, exactly, is difficult. It is translated into at least 130 different words in the Bible. Check out some of them: Face, honorable, humiliation, insolent, countenance, attitude.

So, here's my best understanding of the meaning of this verse. The people we bring into our lives will influence how we live, for good or bad. They affect our attitudes, our moods, even how we treat others. I think most of us have experienced the double-edged sword aspects of this verse. When we spend a lot of time with kind people, we tend to be more kind to others. When we focus our attention on sarcastic friends, we become sarcastic. We become what we focus our energies on.

Friends have a tremendous influence over us, so we would be wise to choose our friends carefully. We may have acquaintances who are engaging in a lifestyle that goes counter to the life we are called to in God's word. If we are prone to live in a way that does not honor God, we would be wise to avoid spending too much time with such a person. When we meet someone who appears genuine, but fallible, who truly is making an effort to live a life that honors God, that's the kind of person with whom we should pursue a friendship. In our encounters we can sharpen each other for the good. The best place to find people like that is in your local church. Sure, the church is full of people who fall short. I'm one of those people. But, for the most part, we're all doing our best to aim ourselves in the right direction, and that is toward a life that glorifies our Savior.

Even if you don't have a plate to pass around, make an effort to personally touch another woman in your church this week. Bring a small bag of cookies tied with a ribbon; attach a nice note of encouragement to it. Unexpected gifts like that bless the socks off the recipient. And, who knows, you just might make a new friend!