Sunday, August 31, 2008

Standing Together

"We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you." Colossians 1:3

Tonight as i was having some quiet time i was going through an older issue of Our Daily Bread, a devotional book i picked up at my church. One of the devotions in this book was simply titled Chums. Naturally, this caught my eye and i had to read more. I came to find that this term originated in prisons or "chummages". These were prison dormitories where debtors who could not pay their bills were taken. Since these were not violent criminals a spirit of trust and camaraderie soon developed and the prisoners would play games together. They began to refer to each other as "chums". This term began to mean "cordial friend". As this devotion went on to talk about friendship though it got me thinking of my own friends. I have found over the past year while my husband has been deployed that friendship comes in many ways. It is the person who prays for me in my church. It is the person i have never met who prays for me across the country that i talk to only on my computer. It is the person i meet for lunch when i need to get out of the house. Friendship is the person that spends sleepless nights on the phone with me. Friendship is the person i can count on when times are good and when times are bad. Friends come in many forms and are always there. Recently many of my friends have been going through some difficult times. All i know to do for them is to pray. I can stand beside them and pray for them. But as always, i will be there and a friend to them. The best thing for all of us to remember is Christians stand strong when they stand together.