If only....

Today, Women of Faith is having a blog hop... they give you a question, you answer & then you can visit other ladies who answered the same question... a real gathering of women of faith in the bloggy world - love that!  So the question presented today:

If you could become a Women of Faith speaker, what would you talk about?

First - Can I sit & think about that... not what I would talk about ... just what it would be like to be a speaker.  I would just want to sit on that "porch" & take in all the amazing ladies & their personalities & drink in all the joy they exude!  I'd be laughing with Patsy, sucking up knowledge from Marilyn, cracking some jokes with Anita Renfrow, just hugging the heck out of Luci (she looks just like my grandma!), & learning to get my inner-soul-diva with Mandisa.  Who has time to speak?  I'd just want to sit on the porch the whole time!

But if I had the opportunity to speak... I think my topic would be on FRIENDSHIP!  After all, the Bible talks about friends A LOT- I saw where the word "Friend" is found about ninety times in there! 

We have verses that tell us that
*A friend loves at all times - Proverbs 17:17
*Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses - Proverbs 27:6
*Two are better than one, because they have agood return for their work; if one falls down, his friend can help him up. - Ecclesiates 4:9-10
*Friends come & friends go, but a TRUE friend sticks by you like family - Proverbs 18:24

I guess I just like that topic because I've been blessed with some amazing friends through my life...

I have friends who have shown me how to teach, how to laugh, how to argue with, but then come back together & laugh at what we just argued about, friends who are just plain incredible & make me think - friends who give that shoulder to cry on....

I have friends who have helped me grow as a Christian, who have looked out for & gave me advice & encouragement in the times I needed it most.  Friends that just take you as family, like the Proverbs 18:24 says... Friends that know who you are, & still loves you ... how CRAZY is that?

Friends who have shown me what courage is, what strength is & what depending & relying on our Father really looks like.  Friendship that is irreplaceable... each friendship has a new gift that is given, but no one can ever replace each individual friend... thats what makes each one so amazing & special

And mostly, I'd want to talk about the friend that we have in Jesus.  He himself said in John 15:12-15

This is my command:  Love one another the way I loved you.  This is the very best way to love.  Put your life on the line for your friends.  You are my friends when you do the things I command you.  I'm no longer calling you servants becaue servants done understand what their master is thinking & planning.  No, I've named you friends because I've let you in on eveyrything I've heard from the Father.

Get that?  Jesus calls us FRIENDS!!!!  He's always with us - even in the darkest hours, to the most joyest of joys... TRULY seeing us for who we are & still loving us beyong anything our minds can imagine.

Yep, friendship... they'd have to pull me off the stage if they got me talking about this area in my life...

What would you talk about?