PROVERBS 27 – Monday
Verse 6 reads “faithful are the wounds of a friend…” In this context, the wounds of a friend appear to be necessary. Friends who love us enough to be honest with us, even when it hurts, are the best kinds of friends. I can remember multiple times in my life in which I didn’t enjoy the truth that I was told, but my friends and family loved me enough to tell me anyway. We often think that allowing people their momentary happiness is a kindness, but if someone is in sin, it is our duty to tell loved ones the painful truth. Just as iron sharpens iron (verse17) by chipping away the outer bits of metal, honest friends sharpen each other by helping each other to turn away from sin and helping to recognize the things that are keeping us spiritually dull.
Finding a friend or a group of friends who can be open enough with each other to share this kind of love is invaluable. Someone told me that a friendship that lasts 7 years is a lifelong friendship—if you can make it 7 years, you can make it forever. I don’t particularly like the idea that a length of time is necessary to determine true friendship; I think that real friendship is proven by friends who can be brutally honest in love. I was close to a girl in college for 4 years, but I could never tell her hard truths. It weighed on me when I saw things that needed attention, but I was too scared of upsetting her to be a forthright friend. “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” Don’t be afraid to confront your people when you see them in or approaching sin. We need each other to keep us accountable.
-Megan Bryant
Seek Grow Love 