The Ugly Duckling

          Now I am sure you know the story of                  The Ugly Duckling.


Well maybe your not from this planet or just have never ever heard of this story for whatever reason, here's a little background story.

The ugly duckling is a children's story written by Hans Christian Anderson. The story is centred around a loner bird, who suffers from abuse, and  is made to feel the odd one out, from everyone else until he matures into a beautiful Swan.

Yesterday, I heard a powerful sermon on friends. The sermon ministered to me in so many different ways.

I'm sure many of us can relate to this story. There are many times I have felt like the ugly duckling. I have felt I don't fit in, for whatever reason, looks, personality, culture. Sometimes, even our past can influence how we feel about ourselves and we put up a wall, so that we don't get hurt again, making it hard for ourselves to even make friends.

Others may mistreat you, abuse you, reject you maybe you don't fit in and it's not anything I have mentioned, perhaps others get intimated by you whatever the problem only you can identify that.
The important message I do want you to know is that there is only one friend you will ever need and that friend is JESUS.

But guess what? Even Jesus has friends. This is what he said to his friends

John 15:12-15 New International Version (NIV)

12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

Jesus called the disciples his FRIENDS. He didn't call them strangers or enemies they were his friends. 
There is no greater love than knowing that Jesus laid down his life for us, his friends. He calls us his friends and that we are commanded to love one another as friends just as Jesus did and still does. 

We can't stop showing love to each other just because we are not in a relationship with that person anymore, we can choose to be mature and still have a certain level of friendship love. 

We can show love to our neighbours, people who have done wrong, those that are lost the list goes on. 

Many times I have had to forgive and be a friend to someone who hurt me. It's not always been easy, but knowing this is the command of my Father in heaven, I know that it is worth it. 

I also think its the best way to even start new relationships. Be friends first. See that person as a brother in Christ first before anything else. 
Or even just see all people that way, including your neighbours. 

I know its not easy but try it. You never know what God can achieve through you starting off as friends. 

Maybe you find it hard to make friends ask for the spirit of friendliness. This is an area that I struggle with and have been praying for and God has helped me so much and I am still learning. Ask for godly loyal friends that will not lead you away from The Lord, but that will instead lead you on the right path, back to your First Love. The love of God. 

Remind yourself that you have a friend in Jesus. No matter what you are going through, as my daughter likes to say Jesus is my best friend, let that apply to your life. 



Proverbs 18:24 New King James Version (NKJV)

24 A man who has friends [a]must himself be friendly,
But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.


Jesus loves you

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