A Generous Mindset In Friendship

A Generous Mindset in Friendship

The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

I serve as part of a leadership team with other women in my local community, and my team studies a different topic from the Bible each year. This year we’ve been exploring what it means to have a generous mindset in relationships with others. We’ve discussed God’s generosity toward us, loving difficult people, giving our resources of time and money, having the attitude of Christ, and finally being generous in our relationships with other women.

At one of our meetings, we spent part of the morning sharing about our histories with other women, and many told stories of old wounds from past friendships. We talked about what that was like and how we could move ahead in relationships with wisdom, but without letting old hurts hinder us from lasting friendships now and in the future. Many of us began to recognize how we’d let things in our past affect our current relationships, and we prayed for one another, that we could move past these unhealthy patterns of thoughts and actions toward others.

Scripture tells us that if we are going to have a generous mindset toward others, then the fruits of the Holy Spirit must be evident in our lives. I ask myself often, do I live in and generously give out love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? And if not, why? What is stopping me from being generous in all these areas of life? I found that as I looked at these fruits and how they were evident in my life, my relationships and friendships with others began to improve as well. Generosity is not just limited to topics of money or time but applies to the way that we think about and approach those around us as well.

— Kendra

— Today’s Act of Friendship —

Choose one of the fruits of the Spirit that you think you could incorporate more within your current friendships, and consider one way you could begin.