I'm making progress!

Well,
As usual God continues to teach me! I have done a l0t of processing about my friend's situation. I think He's slowly changing my heart. I know now that I can be a supportive friend and unwavering in my beliefs at the same time. Through much prayer and conversation with many women who are older and wiser than I am - I've come to understand the truth that she knows how I feel, and that's good, but now, the most important thing I can do is be the best friend I possibly can, and decide to support her in whatever decisions/choices she makes from this point on - trusting in God's presence in her life.

It's still a tough place for me. I guess because I haven't seen much of that through the choices she's made up to this point. But I have to keep her humanity in perspective also. I have to remember that we all sin, and sometimes we sin in "bigger" ways than other times. ("Bigger" meaning in ways that result in more dramatic/life-altering consequences.) For her, this is one of those times. But God is using this to remind me of my own humanity. Of my own predestined bent towards choosing my own way over His. My own desire to pursue immediate pleasures that this world offers - whatever facet that takes.

He has opened my eyes to a path, a series of choices, that I could at some point easily choose myself. One mistake. One wrong choice. One bad decision. I'm as close to it as anyone else, including her. And it's only the power of Christ in me, the prayers of those who love me, and the choice to be accountable to people that will keep me from it. I feel that that is the heart of what was missing in her life at the time of all these choices. Choosing to not strategically place trustworthy people in her life that would ask the tough questions about her dating relationship with this guy. People she would have to be tranparently honest with so that they could pray like crazy for her while providing the accountability that causes people to build up "hedges of protection" around their relationships. Footholds, rather than strongholds. I'm almost scared to death of the day I enter into a serious dating relationship; when the time comes for me to set boundaries - that my spirit will desperately need and want, but that my flesh will fight, to the death, against.

Pray for me to begin relationships of accountability in preparation for that time. Pray that I will be a friend that loves at all times. (Prov 17:17) Pray that God will give me wisdom to respond to her situation in an upright, but tender and loving way. Pray that I will be an encouragement to her, not "righteous" Christian who proclaims my standards, but lacks love.

Closing thoughts:
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol. If I have the gift of prophesy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. It does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." (1 Corinthians 13:1-8)

Lord, let this be true of me, of my character, as I walk with my friend.