authenticity of friends

John 15: 13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

One the greatest wisdoms that Jesus ever taught me was how to be authentic. It is true. Authentic with myself leads to authenticity with and for friends.  The challenging part is being authentic with those in your past, family & friends, where you maybe were not always an authentic person. They may not always accept your change.  Trust, me, it happened within my own family.  

Before we start, I want to give you an example of what it means to be authentic. Diane Motl says in Ways of Living an Authentic Life “Being authentic means coming from a real place within. It is when our actions and words are congruent with our beliefs and values. It is being ourselves, not an imitation of what we think we should be or have been told we should be. There is no “should” in authentic.” Here is the website you can read more about her comments.  https://psychcentral.com/lib/ways-of-living-an-authentic-life/

My life really changed when Jesus integrated Himself in my walk on this earth. Hence my book title “Walk to God”. God pruned me of my none authenticity that was very bad in my life as well as a bad fruit towards others.  A few years back, I could relay the same type of knowledge with my own daughter. The Lord gave me the opportunity to teach my 16-year daughter what I call the "authenticity of friends" hence the title. 

It started when a rumour spread about her from supposedly Christian friends, she texted me asking what to do. This is the moment parents dream of, I explained to her the "authenticity of friends" will determine your path for the rest of your life. You have two choices. Cut them out immediately and don't look back or keep them in your life and drama will be lurking around every corner. Who needs that? She made the right choice. 

Who is truly a friend or what constitutes a friend? A friend is someone that gets in the foxhole with you in the good times and the low times. Their values and beliefs align with yours. A friend certainly would not spread rumours about you, especially, those which are untrue or in this case vicious in nature.  

In speaking to one of my truly great friends Prema Patil, she sums up our conversation when speaking to her about this expereince “Happiness in life needs a very precise balance. It needs utmost caution and tranquility of mind. A practitioner of this art will not get attached to any thing in life. He will neither reject anything. He is standing alone while being friends with the entire world.”

This brings me back to John 15 where Jesus is about to go to the cross for his friends, which includes you and me. He reminds us that we will be persecuted for our faith. My daughter was persecuted by her own Christian friends who spread a vicious lie.  

There are a couple of other verses we can look at. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 6: 14 not to be “unequally yoked”, you can have worldly friends but in a limited basis. Christians have the light with a righteousness living where your nonbelieving friends walk in darkness living an unrighteousness life.   The Lord has really blessed me with some amazing righteous friends. 

The other verse is where James takes us all the way back to Abraham where he was called a friend of God through his righteousness. You get a recurring theme that Righteousness is what drives a person to Authenticity. We will look at Righteousness in our next blog. 

James 2: 23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.

Are you living an authentic life? If you are not, ask God to prune you and to give you the wisdom to lead an authentic life. This little bit of pruning will bring you joys at every corner vs the drama lurking around every corner. It was such a joy to see my daughter make the right decision where joy is filling her life with a plethora of true friends,  She is living proof of the “Authenticity of Friends.”