That little childhood
experience has been repeated in
various ways and at different
times throughout my life.
Whenever I have known or felt
that someone didn’t like me,
or if someone has been unkind to
me, I have made a special effort
to turn that person into a
friend.
One time, I heard that
someone had been talking about
me, so I invited her to lunch.
We had a great time. She
confessed that I was not at all
the way she had imagined me to
be. She became a very good
friend.
On another occasion, there
was a woman who was not well
liked and she treated me very
unkindly. I determined I would
show her love and make a friend
of her. The process of making
her a friend changed her
completely. I never mentioned
the way she had treated me to
her. I thought she probably
didn’t even remember what she
had done, but one day she
surprised me by apologizing for
the way she had acted. She
eventually died of lung cancer,
but before she did, I was able
to comfort her and share
Christ’s love with her.
So many times in life we run
across people that "turn us
off" or even hurt us by
their actions. Their behaviors
make them very hard to like.
However, these people are often
the very ones who most need a
friend and who need to be shown
Christ’s love. Many times they
are hurting, but they might
respond to a loving hand held
out to them. After all, we all
need friends, and to have a
friend we must be a friend. We
can never win someone to the
Lord until they first see His
love shining through us. Let's
not let the initial hurtful or
rude behaviors of others keep us
from showing them the love of
Jesus. Who knows what He can do
in their lives if we choose to
love them and give them a chance
to be our friends.
A friend loves at all times.
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