You Need Friends | You Can't Do This Life Alone: Friendship Series

So here's this question again.

If friendships are so important, why is it so hard to make friends? Why is this one of the biggest struggles that we will have in life? Honestly, it's because it involves other people, and other people have free wills, and sometimes they do things that hurt us.

Have you ever thought to yourself, "I'm surrounded by so many people, yet I feel so alone, like nobody really knows me"? This was me growing up.

I had a group of about five friends, and we were always together, from the time I was in kindergarten all the way through college, and it never went past surface level.

None of them ever actually took time to get to know me.

Or have you ever thought, "Everyone has their own group.

They don't need me.

They won't accept me"? This actually happened to a teen I know just recently.

He was telling me that he tried out a new church, and he was trying to talk to people, but they all had their own groups, and nobody would really engage in conversation with him.

That's hard.

Or have you ever told anyone, or maybe even believed it yourself, "I don't need anybody.

I'm fine.

People just end up letting you down anyway"? If you have thought this, deep down, you know you need friends.

It's just that you may have been hurt or rejected, and it left you feeling like, "What's the point?" Or maybe you're like me, and you're a natural-born introvert, and you don't mind being by yourself.

Actually, sometimes you don't text your friends, and not because you don't want to, but because honestly, you just don't think about it.

It's not that they're not that important to you.

I have to say, I am guilty here.

[laughs] Solitude is a good thing.

It's okay to pull away and to have quiet time.

However, isolation, cutting yourself off from everybody else, is not healthy, and God actually tells us in Proverbs 18:1 that when we isolate ourselves, we seek our own desires, meaning we turn inward, and instead of seeking the plan of God, we do what feels right, and in that isolation, we will end up in a place that leaves us so broken.

Or maybe making friends has been a struggle for you because you're homeschooled and you're not around other people, or you recently switched schools and you don't really know anybody.

Or maybe you go to a small youth ministry where there really isn't anyone to friend, and you're just not sure what to do.

Now, ladies, these are just a few scenarios.

For others, it could be the fear of rejection, comparison, past hurts, busyness, social media friendships replacing real friendships.

And we will be talking about all of these things through this friendship series.