Just friends.

 

Welcome!

 

It is nearly Christmas: the tree is trimmed, the nights are drawing in and I have decided to start writing a blog about friendship between men and women. There are plenty of things I could be doing now, but I am going to attempt to write this blog because I think there is an important issue which is often brushed aside or overlooked. Searching for serious reading/teaching on friendship has been hard and apart from the Bible (of course), the fruits of my search have been disappointing.

At this point please feel free to email me with a extensive list of resources I have failed or been too impatient to find. There may be some brilliant teaching on friendship between young men and women out there and I would be more than willing to point people towards it.

Although I will be writing from a women's point of view during the blog, I will make some effort to include perspectives from men about certain issues and hopefully this will also be a helpful blog for guys as well as us ladies :)

From where I stand, it seems a lot of focus on the topic of relationships for women is on our relationship status (dating, marriage, engagement, etc.) and yes, there is good reason for that: Men are different from us; we don't always (hardly often) understand them; we think and interpret things in different ways.

And these are all good things (imagine if men and women were the same....) and also good reasons why we should look at our friendships with men.

Regardless of what marital status you are currently in, the majority of your relationships with men are going to be platonic friendships and although getting your relationship with your boyfriend/fiancée/husband right is really important (It really is and the Bible is your first port of call for looking at that, as well as lots of great books written by godly men and women), I don't think enough thought is given to the importance of friendships and how to handle them in whatever season of life you find yourselves in.

So I think my point is: healthy friendships with men are important, especially if you are single for a large portion of your life.
I'm talking about faith-lifting, truth speaking, Jesus-glorifying friendships.

This blog is going to be a mountain hike.

I don't know the route very well.
I will need to ask for directions on the way.
I will definitely make mistakes.
But I have the ultimate friend by my side and He is utterly faithful.

Will you strap on your boots, grab a flask of hot tea and join me?

"Some friendships do not last, but some friends are more loyal than brothers."

- Proverbs 18:24