This day may we know:

the wisdom of God the Father,

the friendship of God the Son and

the guidance of God the Holy Spirit.

In this week's worship we are thinking about friendship and how friends can be relied upon and will do anything to help each other.

Have a listen to me reading a story about 5 friends.

Zachariah, Malachia, Hananiah, Azariah and Nigel were all great friends who enjoyed spending time together doing lots of fun things. When Nigel got ill, they couldn't do those things anymore and all his friends wanted to do was to help.  They had faith in Jesus and went out of their way to get Nigel to him.

Have a look at this picture of a chain:

Stainless Steel Chain - Short Link | S3i Group

All the links are joined together and are very difficult to break apart.

Imagine each one of those links was a person, a friend.  True friendship is like this chain - really strong and joined together, helping each other out when needed.

Are you a true friend?

A prayer for good friendship

By the Right Reverend Christopher Hibbert:

Let our friendships be strong, O Lord,

That they may become a blessing to others.

Let our friendships be open, O Lord,

That they may be a haven for others.

Let our friendships be gentle, O Lord,

That they may bring peace to others.

For Jesus' sake

Amen

 

If you have some strips of paper and some glue, you could make your own friendship chain, like this:

Friendship Necklace

Maybe on each link you could write the name of a friend? You could also write down why that person is a true friend.

Take care and stay safe.

Mr M