"Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful."
Proverbs 27:6
This verse is interesting on several levels. I like the idea of friends supporting us and telling us the truth even when it hurts and helping us to be better people... of course, sometimes we enable the bad habits rather than encouraging the good, but it is a good ideal to work for, as we all learn together. :) And the other side seems true as well. Slimy is slimy, even when it seems really nice on the surface. And maybe that is what the verse is saying... the surface is only one level of love. Underneath, real love isn't about never hurting the other person or always being a certain definition of nice. It can't be. That deep love is about helping people to be better than they are... encouraging them to overcome problems and fulfill their potential. That's why God is our best friend in the universe... because he is here, every day, every minute, helping us to be better. When we get upset at him because he isn't granting us peace and contentment every minute, then we're the ones who are wrong, not him. We need that help in order to change.
On the other side, we need to work on all the levels of love, making sure that we are friends and not enemies. Sometimes it is hard, because actions and feelings don't always match up immediately even though we're working on it, and sometimes we're trying to act nice when we don't feel nice, or we're trying to be polite, but frustration leaks out and it doesn't come across in a good way at all. But I think that is what the second part of the verse is for... to give a limit. We shouldn't use this scripture as an excuse to wound someone, or we start being the enemy, not the friend. Anytime we intentionally go to hurt someone, I think we've gone over to the dark side, and we've gotten our good and evil out of balance too far to the dark. When we get into a situation where we can't tell whether we're the friend or the enemy, maybe we need to stop saying anything until we purify our motivations. God loves us perfectly, and we can feel that even when things are horrible... and for us, it needs to be the same with other people. Today, let's work on showing love to other people, and being friends and not enemies. :)
Proverbs 27:6
This verse is interesting on several levels. I like the idea of friends supporting us and telling us the truth even when it hurts and helping us to be better people... of course, sometimes we enable the bad habits rather than encouraging the good, but it is a good ideal to work for, as we all learn together. :) And the other side seems true as well. Slimy is slimy, even when it seems really nice on the surface. And maybe that is what the verse is saying... the surface is only one level of love. Underneath, real love isn't about never hurting the other person or always being a certain definition of nice. It can't be. That deep love is about helping people to be better than they are... encouraging them to overcome problems and fulfill their potential. That's why God is our best friend in the universe... because he is here, every day, every minute, helping us to be better. When we get upset at him because he isn't granting us peace and contentment every minute, then we're the ones who are wrong, not him. We need that help in order to change.
On the other side, we need to work on all the levels of love, making sure that we are friends and not enemies. Sometimes it is hard, because actions and feelings don't always match up immediately even though we're working on it, and sometimes we're trying to act nice when we don't feel nice, or we're trying to be polite, but frustration leaks out and it doesn't come across in a good way at all. But I think that is what the second part of the verse is for... to give a limit. We shouldn't use this scripture as an excuse to wound someone, or we start being the enemy, not the friend. Anytime we intentionally go to hurt someone, I think we've gone over to the dark side, and we've gotten our good and evil out of balance too far to the dark. When we get into a situation where we can't tell whether we're the friend or the enemy, maybe we need to stop saying anything until we purify our motivations. God loves us perfectly, and we can feel that even when things are horrible... and for us, it needs to be the same with other people. Today, let's work on showing love to other people, and being friends and not enemies. :)
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