You're Just Like Me"

Florida tells her friend Jodi..."know what your problem is, Jodi Baxter? You don't want to accept that you're just like me. I didn't deserve God's love when I was strung out on drugs, now did I? But the thing that turned me around? I discovered He loved me anyway. Jesus died on that bloody cross to save me- - and look how far He's brought me! With all your blessings, all your middle-class-white American privileges, you don't deserve God's love, either. But you seem to forget that He loves you anyway, that He saved you, and ain't nothin' yo can do gonna change that."

This book has really made me wonder,...do I ...have I forgotten what it's like ... that I am really no better than anyone else? Do I treat others as if they are just as important as the next person? Read Psalm 139 ...put the name of your friends...those who are not your friends...and your own name in the place of "I". Let it speak to your soul.

2 Kings 6:16

Don't be afraid! Elisha told him. "For there are more on our side than on theirs!" then Elisha prayed, "O LORD, open his eyes and let him see!" The LORD opened the young man's eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire.

There is more than we can see....trusting God is essential to our inner peace. Jermiah 29:11 'For I know the plans I have for you' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.'

Knowing and believing all this, why do we experience fear? I suppose the flesh speaks out. Yet, the lesson I seem to be learning...let my faith outweigh my fear....let faith win!

Friends

Friends...they come in all shapes and sizes. There are various levels of friends from close to aquaintances which last for a duration of time...only a true friend will last a lifetime.

What is the importance of friendship? I like to think of friends as someone who will help us continue on the right track, someone to share the good times as well as the bad, someone who helps to make you a better person.

Before one can truely have a friend, they must be a friend. That takes risk...risking that your loyality and gestures of friendship will be taken and appreciated.