WORK ON THOSE FRIENDSHIPS

By KATE [email protected] | Comments: 0 | Leave a comment

PRAYER FOR THE WEEK
Jesus, help me remember that every friendship has tough times, and I need to work on it to keep it going! Amen.

Some people asked Jesus, “Is it okay for us to get a divorce? Moses let us.” Jesus told them: “Moses taught that divorce was OK because you were going to do it anyway. But when God created people, God made men and women different so they could be together.”

You don’t make a new friend with the thought, “I’ll hang out with this person for a while, and then our friendship will end.” When you start spending time with someone you really like, you hope you’ll be friends forever. Even if you don’t talk about it, you probably assume your connection will always exist.

This week’s Gospel (Mark 10:2-16) talks about times when connections end — like when a married couple gets a divorce.

Divorces are hard on everybody. The couple who are no longer going to be married are sad and angry and even scared sometimes. Like you with a new friend, they didn’t start dating and eventually get married expecting that they wouldn’t stay together for life.

Unfortunately, some friendships don’t last. You might just drift away from a friend, spending more time with other people; you might change schools or move away and find it hard to keep the friendship going. Sometimes, an argument makes you realize that a person is not a good fit for you as a friend.

That can happen to married couples, too: They fight or drift away from each other so much that they realize they don’t want to be married anymore.
Just like you hope your friendships last forever, Jesus said that God hopes marriages last forever. When a couple divorces, God is just as upset as they are.

To make a friendship last, you need to work on it. You have to be patient with your friend, be a good listener and make time for the person, even if that’s hard. Jesus hoped married couples would do the same thing. Not every connection lasts — but a marriage or a friendship definitely won’t last if you don’t take the time to work on it!