Favorite Friday

"You're my best friend!"  "I'm so glad ______ is my best friend!"  "She's my best friend!"

It kind of makes me laugh to see how many "best friends" someone has.  I mean, think about it; one day you see a girl say "John is my best friend".  Then, a couple days later, she is out with the girls and she posts a picture captioned "out with my bestie, Susan!"  This scenario is then repeated the next time she posts, with a completely different person, of course!  The reason I chuckle is because "best" is an absolute adjective; it indicates that one thing/person is better than all the rest.

Don't get me wrong; I have many, many ladies and girls who I consider very close friends.  Mrs. Kim is one of those ladies!  My sister India is another one.  However, I don't categorize my close friends in order of importance; I don't show favoritism.  When I was a young girl, my mother actually kind of discouraged India and I from having "best friends" because she was wise enough to recognize that labeling some people as "best friends" and some not opens the door for hurt feelings.

There was a couple in the Bible who played favorites.  Isaac and Rebekah each had a favorite son; Isaac loved Esau, while Rebekah loved Jacob.  If you read about them in Genesis, especially chapter 27, you will see how this favoritism destroyed their family relationships.  There are other examples in the Bible that show us how favoritism leads to so many negative things.

Today's exhortation is this: don't play favorites.  There's nothing wrong with having close friends - friends are gifts straight from God!  However, seek to treat all your friends the way God would - with love, respect, and kindness.  In so doing, you might just protect yourself from hurt feelings, too!

---

Bible Reading: Proverbs 21, Ephesians 5