Friendship

OK today I want to talk about friends and I don't mean the TV show.  If you don't have them, you should really try and make some.  I know an amazing woman named D.  She has lots of great friends and I have truly enjoyed meeting them.  I have met some that were very old friends and some that were relatively recent.  A friend of my dad once asked me if I had any old golf balls.  "No," I replied.  "Well then I bet you are not a very good golfer," he said.

Let me ask this question.  If you are an adult, do you have any old friends?  If not, ask yourself this question, "Am I a good friend?"  You might be surprised at the answer.  See my dad's friend was telling me that if I did not play golf for a long period of time and keep the same golf balls around then I was hitting them very badly and losing many of them.  I think it's the same way with our friends.  If we don't have any old ones, we must be treating them badly and losing them.

So I think old friends are important.  I recently had the opportunity to go visit with a friend of mine named A.  A and I became friends in 7th grade.  That was thirty years ago and we are still friends to this day.  When we went to visit him, I went with another friend of mine named, B.  B and I met in 7th grade as well.  It was fun retelling the stories of our childhood growing up in Saginaw, Texas.  I can say these people know stuff about me that I hope doesn't find it's way to the internet!

But what about making new friends?  As I said, D has a lot of friends.  One of them is a great lady named K.  I have only been around K a few times but I really respect her.  She's a great mom and a good friend.  She and D met within the last few years and have been fast friends since.  So let me turn the tables a little on our earlier discussion.  When was the last time you made a new friend?  If it has been several years, maybe it's time to think about making a new one.

How do we do that you ask?  The answer is much simpler than you think.  We make new friends by being friendly.  That's really pretty simple stuff right.  Well for me, I am a little bit of an introvert so showing myself friendly can definitely be work.  Now when I write this blog, I share a lot of personal stuff so you might think I am an open book and in many respects that is true.  But sometimes it can be hard for me to reach out to people and make friends when I don't know them. 

So let me close with this.  Friendships are so very important.  Our true friends are always there for us and it is great because unlike family we get to chose our friends.  I will try to post something about chosing your friends wisely but for now, let me just close by asking you this.  If you did a personal inventory of all your friends, how many would you have?  Is that enough?  Only you can answer that.

And that's another Opinion of the Minion.

Rig for Silent Running

Hello everyone,

It has been almost a month since I posted anything and I think it is time for me to start again.  Today I want to talk to you about a conversation I had with my cousin several months ago and the impact it had on my life recently.  My cousin was going through a time in her life that had her searching for answers.  We were talking and she kept telling me that she was trying very much to hear from God.  She said she felt like she needed to do what they do on submarines but couldn't remember exactly what it's called.  I told her I thought it was called rigging for silent running.

Now I am certainly no expert on submarines but here is what I have been told about this subject.  When a submarine thinks it's going into battle, it's biggest strength is the element of surprise.  For a submarine to keep the element of surprise, it has to be totally quite when it heads into battle.  So the captain tells the crew to rig for silent running which means to stop making noise.  The submarine has to be totally quiet.  The sound of one clanking pot can resonate through the water and give away the location of the submarine.  That could get them killed.

The reason that this concept resonated so strongly in my life was because I was faced with a situation and I didn't know what to do or who's word to trust.  Now let me say that just like the old gospel song says, "this battlefield was of my own making."  Meaning I was seeing a problem that didn't really exist but I sure thought it did.  I was looking at circumstances and making judgments unfairly.  Ultimately I decided to block out all of the noises that were influencing my mind.  I purposed to rig my heart for silent running.  I didn't talk about the problem to anyone because I determined to hear from God about the situation and not let other people influence what I was hearing from him.

Now don't get me wrong, I think it is very good to get other people's input into certain decisions you make.  The bible says that there is wisdom in a multitude of counselors and I believe in getting good sound counsel when making decisions.  But this particular time, I purposed to hear what the Lord would have me do.  Do you know what he said, "Stop and wait."  It wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear but it was exactly what I needed to hear.

So let me ask you, what voices are you listening to that you should not?  Maybe one of the voices you need to tune out is your own.  I know it was that way for me.  Whatever they are, let me encourage you to examine the voices you are listening to.  If they are full of fear then they are not from God.  Tune those out and listen to what the Lord has to say to you.  You will be glad you did.

That's another Opinion of the Minion