A friend of mine recently made a comment that has stuck with me.
She said that every person that enters your life, whether they stay in your life forever, or are only briefly in your life, serve some sort of purpose for your life.
I've reflected on this a lot, and have realized that it is true, but it's not easy to realize. For me, the easiest ones to realize (ironically enough) are the friends that have hurt me or betrayed me in some way or left my life for no reason - because it's easy to look back and see what I have learned from the experience (no matter how much it still might hurt or is frustrating to think about), and it's interesting to think about and to see how far I have come since that time in my life.
The hardest ones to realize are those that are still blessings in my life. As much as I realize that they bring happiness and joy into my life, it's hard to pinpoint - but maybe it's not about pinpointing that during a friendship and just enjoying each others company.
So it's also made me think about myself and how I approach all of my relationships - how am I entering friendships with people? Am I serving an appropriate purpose and not over-stepping any boundaries, etc? Do I have Christ-like attitudes and opinions when interacting with them and discussing different topics with them? The concentration has changed from thinking about others to thinking about myself and how I can be a great friend and have meaningful relationships as well.
Anyways, just something that I've been thinking about.
All of this is so important. Thanks for sharing this. Its so amazing to hear you're struggling through some of the same things as me.
ReplyDeleteI actually find it so hard lately to let go of certain friendships. Especially the people who have hurt/betrayed me. Good for you to be able to let go of that.