Friendship

Hello my name is Jasper, I praise the Lord.

I would like to speak on the subject of friendship. Friendship is something that's very important to me. It's important how I relate to people, especially my friends. I have been blessed through the grace of God to have friends that have been with me for some 30 to over 50 years. Some of my friends we've had the pleasure of sharing our lives together from elementary school to being in our sixties. We partied together, we grew up together, we ran the streets together, we watched as our first babies were born, we watched as our families grew, and now our babies are having babies. This is something that I don't take lightly and I praise God for the people that He put in my life. I don't believe it was anything that I did that was so special or that I was so great that I attracted these people, but I know today that everything that has happened in my life is by God's grace and glory. I know this because I have met people who don't have any friends. I have met people who can't seem to keep a friend for more than a few months. I've also met people that have been betrayed by friends or had friends who turned their backs on them. So I think about this sometimes and I thank God for the people that He put in my life who stuck by me when I was at my lowest point. Who is always there to lend a hand to me when I needed help. Jesus said the Father will always give you what you need and I know that He will also give you the people that you need. I consider my longtime friends to be gifts from God, to help me through the hard times in life, to share in my joy, and also to help comfort me in my pain. I recall once I was in a rehab and I was at a low point in my thinking, and I mentioned to one of my friends that I felt like giving up. The very next day two of my friends came to talk to me, to help pull me up, and told me that giving up on myself was not an option. I thank God again for the people He put in my life. I've had my friends take me into their homes when I had nowhere to lay my head. God knew what He was doing when He put these people in my life. So if you have a friend that has stuck by you, tell that friend how much you love them and appreciate them for being in your life. Remember, it's not you who attracts these kind of people, but it is God giving you more of what you need.

Goodbye, my name is Jasper. Praise God.