{"id":753,"date":"2017-11-29T11:01:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-29T17:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/youve-got-friend-in-me\/"},"modified":"2019-02-18T10:12:08","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T16:12:08","slug":"youve-got-friend-in-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=753","title":{"rendered":"You’ve Got a Friend in Me"},"content":{"rendered":"
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With six grandchildren, I’ve watch many animated movies and among my favorites was Toy Story. “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” is the theme song. Maybe we should use it as our own theme song:
\nYou’ve got a friend in me. You’ve got a friend in me.
\nYou’ve got troubles, and I’ve got ’em too
\nThere isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you
\nWe stick together and can see it through
\n‘Cause you’ve got a friend in me. You’ve got a friend in me<\/p>\n

Yesterday, I heard a speaker say, \u201cOften we look and act like we have it all together, but in reality, we are struggling and hurting and we could sure use a friend that we could like, love, and TRUST.” That resonated with me. And, that friend is one we trust so much that we can bear our aching heart to as we cry bucket loads of tears. That friend is so trustworthy that they will cry and laugh with us, and best of all, our friend provides a \u201csafe\u201d place for us, because what is said in our time together, stays there. The speaker went on to say \u201cLook at how Christ modeled His life. In the garden, as the Son of God, He chose to reveal to his three closest friends the anguish that He was in. He didn\u2019t put a brave face on for the disciples. He shared the anguish of His soul as He cried, \u2018Let this cup pass from me. \u201d If Christ could bear His soul \u2013 we need that, too.<\/p>\n

We do have a trustworthy friend in Jesus. He is always there for us. He truly understands everything about us because He felt the same pains that we do. But, we also need a friend or friends that we love and trust and are able to reach out to them for encouragement. When I lived in Tulsa, I had a precious group of loving and caring women that were in my weekly Life Group. My home was our “safe space\u201d, because we liked, loved and trusted each other. We shared our hearts openly because we knew what we shared was held as sacred. Galatians 6:2 says \u201cHelp carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will obey the law of Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Monday night was the first team meeting for a beautiful spiritual retreat that will take place in March. This team is a group of 40 women who will grow together throughout the next 16 weeks as we pray and prepare together for the retreat, but the most important facet of our coming together is that we are sisters in Christ and we will feel safe in that place. We covenant together to encourage and support each other. WOW! Forty friends to \u201csafely\u201d share each others joys and sorrows with.<\/p>\n

The Christmas season is here and no doubt there will be added stress and pressure because of all the many activities that come along with it for many, and for others who are alone and lonely and long for this season to be over for another year. We need to find a \u201csafe place\u201d and a trustworthy friend, one of God\u2019s kids, who will encourage us and lift us up. They are out there. To find that friend, it’s up to us to show ourselves friendly. Maybe YOU and I could be THAT ONE that can offer ourselves as a \u201csafe place\u201d for others to come to for comfort and prayer. Instead of displaying a \u201cDo Not Disturb\u201d sign on our hearts, it\u2019s time to put up an \u201cOpen\u201d sign that says \u201cHere\u2019s my shoulder \u2013 go ahead and lean on me!\u201d They will know they can come to us for hope, encouragement and support. After all, aren\u2019t we supposed to be the \u201cGood News\u201d carriers? If you haven’t heard it from me before, please hear it now “You’ve got a friend in me, and I love you so much.” <\/p>\n

1 Thessalonians 5:11 “And so encourage one another and help one another, just as you are now doing.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With six grandchildren, I’ve watch many animated movies and among my favorites was Toy Story. “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” is the theme song. Maybe we should use it as our own theme song: You’ve got a friend in me. You’ve got a friend in me. You’ve got troubles, and I’ve got ’em too…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4333,3226,253,1085,4334,4335,4336,124,1736,259,4337,2024,4338],"class_list":["post-753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-1-thessalonians-511","tag-covenant","tag-encouragement","tag-friend","tag-like-love-and-trust","tag-psalm-911-2","tag-safe-space","tag-secret-place","tag-shadow-of-the-almighty","tag-support","tag-toy-story","tag-trustworthy","tag-youve-got-a-friend-in-me"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=753"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7587,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753\/revisions\/7587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}