Doing Life TogetherSample

Ready To Sacrifice

How do we sustain these types of friendships? If we are to get right to the point, the key to sustaining any relationship is by making it a priority. This takes sacrifice. So many times in life, we have good intentions to call a friend, take them dinner or to write an encouraging letter, but we never actually get around to it. Good intentions don’t grow or sustain relationships; at times it can actually kill them.

To form and sustain lasting relationships, we must be ready to sacrifice and serve. This ultimately means that we have to be willing to put others first. We give up the things that don’t matter so we can invest into and spend time with people that do. We put aside the desire to be noticed so that our friends succeed. We don’t focus on what others can give us or how they can help us, instead we think of ways to serve them. This is one of the hardest things to do in a friendship. It’s easy to have friends that serve and encourage us, but we must also be that type of friend. We will only build strong, sustainable relationships when we start being others focused more than self-focused. So make the phone call, send the card, or buy them dinner.

If we want to keep and grow our friendships, we have to learn how to serve and sacrifice for others. No, it’s not always easy, but it’s worth it! Let’s do away with good intentions so that we can live in the type of community that God has called us to.