Attraction

via poppytalk

3.5 tons of petals to cover Costa Rica. A Volcano with flower lava? Check out the full post about it on poppytalk : http://www.poppytalk.com/2014/04/8-million-petals-over-costa-rica.html (for some reason my link was messing up. just copy and paste this into your browser)! This is totally unrelated to my post but I just had to share it as well.


You have your friends and you have your family. Most of your family you do not choose and the majority of your friends are the people that you choose to let in your life. Once I reached college it was entirely my choice for who I wanted to be my friends. Rarely do I make a conscious decision to make someone my friend (with a few kind of creepy instances...and now we're really good friends so I guess it worked!) a lot of times friendships just naturally happen. But lately I've been thinking about the idea of attraction in friendship. Don't let me lose you here...I'm not talking about having a guy friend and being attracted to him and then 'oh dang now the friendship is ruined' type of attraction. But...what initially attracted you to the person that you are friends with (or with whom you are friends? I always forget.)
I've heard so many guys defend themselves when talking about intially talking to a girl because she is pretty, "I can't just immediately know if that girl has great character...usually there's something that initially attracts you to a girl and looks ARE external..." And I get that. Girls think the same way...no one walks into a room and goes, "Okay who do I have the least amount in common with...and it would almost be like pulling teeth to try to have a conversation with that person...*scans room* THAT person. Okay I'm gonna go talk to her/him." But over the weekend I've had this discussion a couple of times.

Is it a bad thing to initially be friends with someone because of the way they look? or just because you were naturally drawn to them?

Now I can't answer that question because I honestly do not know. We are drawn to certain people and we can't always help that...it's just a natural tendency. But lately I've been thinking about the foolish weight that we cast onto people's looks. Or just their external identity. Do they listen to 'cool' music? Do they wear clothes that I like? Do they read books that I read? Do they do the things that I do too? Do they make me laugh? Do they make me feel happy? So we see people through our filter made by the flesh. What if we take a moment and think of a biblical/Christ-like view of the people around us? How many people are hurting and falling and are in hard times and we have completely overlooked them because they did not fit into the criteria of our "friends"? And that's the thing, I don't think most of us even do it on purpose, but it's as if we don't even SEE those people.

Christ loves the unlovables. We are the unlovables -- this was convicting. (shereadstruth)

"for ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God..." Romans 3:23

We're all the same. Regardless of our clothes, regardless of our sense of humor, regardless of the things we do for fun...we're all the same. We aren't called to love people that make it easy to love. We're just called to love as Christ loves. These people that we overlook are not objects to be fixed by OUR presence in their life. We aren't better than these people and we certainly are not doing them a favor by being their friends. These people are just like ME. On the inside...they hurt. They stress. They have joy. They have pain. They talk. They cry. They laugh. They dance. They sing. They rejoice. They have bad days and they have good days. They're just like me. 

So it's not that I'm bashing myself and others for being accidentally close-minded about their friends...not at all. This is me realizing that we generally don't even do this on purpose. We are blind to the needs of others. I'm making it my prayer that my eyes be opened to SEE everyone. 

This may not even be something that bothers you or your struggle. All I know is that it has been a recent conviction.