My greatest wish for you

This is something I am sharing with all those who I have gotten to know online. The best thing you can ever, ever receive in life, is Jesus.

Scott Wesley Brown: I Wish You Jesus

Some explaining

Well well well well well, my dear bloggers!!! I have some explaining to do. First of all, I feel dreadful about not following through on my commitment to write about commitment. As my boyfriend would say "What's up with that?"

And so, the time has come for me to really really be straight with you. Writing this blog has been harder for me since my mother died. The idea for the blog "In the Position of Friend" came out of a really happy night of sharing on my Facebook page. Prior to that evening, the name of this blog was "My Sad Situation", which made me really feel ashamed. Life is hard enough without going around showcasing my misery!

And so, "In the Position of Friend" and the second "In the Position of Friend" were, I felt, good blogspots. I was able to stick with the subject of friendship and provide insights regarding different scenarios that can occur with friends. Then, shortly after my mother died, I began, "Always Your Friend". To be honest, without my mother, I have no one in my personal life who takes an interest in it. My mother was an avid reader. In fact, her appetite for literature was even something the Rabbi spoke of at her funeral. So I would write my blogs "In the Position of Friend" early in the morning. Then, when it was time to contact my parents (something I did every morning on a daily basis), I texted her the link to my published piece, and she always had a marvelous grasp of what I was expressing.

Now that I'm left doing "Always Your Friend" all by myself, I get terribly terribly tired each time I complete one. I'm so sorry to have to tell you all this. But you deserve the truth. Well, I'm running out of battery in my phone. So with no further adieu, I'll send this out to u. We'll chew on this and make a decision later, whatever it may be. Luv y'all!

Paul Simon: Loves Me Like A Rock

Decisions, DECISIONS

I want to share with you an insight I had at the age of 17, which caused a profound change in my attitude toward self-improvement. This is something I jotted down in my school notebook: "It's not enough just to know you can do it, you've got to do it." After this realization, I began to work much, much harder at my drawing and painting. I had planned to major in art in college, and I ended up going to a well reputed art school, where I did very very well.

And so, that small thought that I had; to get my dream out of my heart and onto what is now called "hard copy" propelled a good part of my education and my life. But you see, I couldn't allow it to own me. A person can be full of freshness and originality. But if she takes it up the ladder of success too fast, she will wake up one day and find that her life is not at all like what she was promised or what she expected.

Between proving you can do it and accepting candy from strangers, there is a vital median. Never cross a boundary that will make it impossible for you to go back into the arms of God. God will always be there, no doubt about that. But the tangles we create in our lives can make it really hard to go back to the place where we wanted to be when we started.

Twila Paris: True North

Only believe

I believe in faithfulness
I believe in giving of myself for someone else
I believe in peace and love
I believe in honesty and trust but it's not enough
For all that I believe may never change the way it is
Unless I believe Jesus lives

(chorus)
Where there is faith
There is a voice calling, keep walking
You're not alone in this world
Where there is faith
There is a peace like a child sleeping
Hope everlasting in He who is able to
Bear every Burden, to heal every hurt in my heart
It is a wonderful, powerful place
Where there is faith

There's a man across the sea
Never heard the sound of freedom ring
Only in his dreams There's a lady dressed in black
In a motorcade of cadillacs
Daddy's not coming back
Our hearts begin to fall
And our stability grows weak
But Jesus meets our needs if we only believe

(chorus)
Where there is faith
There is a voice calling, keep walking
You're not alone in this world
Where there is faith
There is a peace like a child sleeping
Hope everlasting in He who is able to
Bear every Burden, to heal every hurt in my heart
It is a wonderful, powerful place
Where there is faith

4Him: Where There is Faith

Commitment: What does it require?

Commitment, for me, is a totally overwhelming subject. Commitment means everything to me. Two ingredients must exist for a commitment to be successful: the 1st is unconditional love, and the 2nd is follow-through. Without both of these, commitment cannot be.

Unconditional love takes courage and a willingness to sacrifice. When you choose to love someone unconditionally, you take some chances. You are letting it be consciously known that you believe in someone, and when you do this, you can't be sure that you will get a positive  response right away, or when, or even ever. To be committed to someone, or any number of things (it doesn't have to be a person) is a difficult decision to make. I would say it is a decision made between you and God.

The second essential ingredient in commitment is follow-through. If you have decided that you love unconditionally the object of your commitment, the next challenge, or set of challenges comes along when complications arise, and you are left wondering: "Does this even make any sense?", "Am I getting (or ever going to get) any payback?" But see, there is the whole meaning of unconditional love. Unconditional love means you abandon the anticipation that you are going to receive something. You are only going to think of what is best for the recipient of your love.

Commitment, love, follow through... guess who the first person to commit to should be? The one you see in the mirror every day! Commitment is an enormous, enormous subject. Please be patient with me as I try to knock out this series. I wanna do it justice. I want to be fair in putting out quality, accurate information.

"Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write on the tablet of your heart." --Proverbs chapter 3, verse 3

Mariah Carey: Anytime You Need A Friend

Commitment: the basics

I reviewed a lot of the content I've been sharing here on Always Your Friend recently, and my reaction was, I'd better get cracking and present some solid material!

So I said I would be spending some time on the topic of commitment. Here is the outline I promised on the subject:

A. Why commitment?
     1. Commitment is the key to making a friendship come alive.

     2. Commitment assists in procuring longevity of friendship

     3. As commitment is realized to be part of a friendship, a safe place for love is created

B. How is commitment accomplished?

     1. Being willing to accept our friends, even if it means going outside of our own comfort level

     2. Being motivated: seeing the potential of commitment for creating a mutually healthier friendship

C. The result of commitment

     1. Recognition that our sacrifices indicate that we sincerely value another

     2. As we demonstrate commitment over time, friendship becomes easier and more natural

Orleans: Still the One

Coming soon from the Position of Friend

Hello Bloggers and Blog Readers!  I have something that I wish to write about which is going to be quite an ambitious undertaking for me. I want to do a series on the subject of "Commitment". Commitment, if you ask me, is the single most important component in a successful and rewarding friendship or relationship.  You could almost say that commitment can pinch hit for 'LOVE' as the feature that "covers a multitude of sins". But I don't want to start into my topic without first having a clear idea of all that I'm going to discuss. Commitment is a vast topic. Soon I hope to be providing you with an outline of the aspects of commitment that I will be going into. For now, I have here some dictionary definitions of the word "Commitment":

com·mit·ment /kəˈmitmənt/

noun: commitment;
plural noun: commitments

a) the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause, activity, etc. "the company's commitment to quality"
synonyms: dedication, devotion, allegiance, loyalty, faithfulness, fidelity "her commitment to her students"

b) a pledge or undertaking. "I cannot make such a commitment at the moment"
synonyms: vow, promise, pledge, oath; More

c) an engagement or obligation that restricts freedom of action. "business commitments"
synonyms: responsibility, obligation, duty, tie, liability;

Whitney Houston and Cece Winans: Count On Me