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Would you consider yourself musical? Do you enjoy streaming your favorite artist online? I love music and concerts. Maybe it’s because in junior high school, I played the violin in the orchestra. I like to think that I played fairly well and made a positive contribution to the group and everyone listening in the audience.
But what if I hadn’t spent hours practicing my violin? What do you think would have happened if I’d grabbed my new school-issued instrument, plopped down in a chair on the concert stage, and started playing with the other members? What a racket I would have made! What squeaks, screeches, squawks, and scratches the audience would have endured!
Playing in harmony in any setting, whether on a sports team, in a band, with a drama club…or in a friendship requires learning the proper techniques. And it demands time as you practice, practice, and practice!
As a new school year begins, you’ll see old friends and probably make some new ones too. In any friendship, we have the opportunity to be encouraging or to say hurtful things. How we speak to our friends will help or hurt our relationships.
Here’s one thing I’d suggest to you about communicating with your friends, especially if you’ve had a fight:
Instead take the time to prepare your heart and your words. Pray about your timing, tone, and topics. Talk with your mom or dad and seek their wisdom about how to handle this situation. Ask God for help with godly discipline over the thoughts of your heart and the words of your mouth as in Psalm 19:14:
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.
Make it your aim to create harmony in your friendships, especially during a disagreement. Seek to do an excellent job of verbalizing your heart in a godly way and with godly wisdom. Just as you practice for your sports team or music club, put an effort and take the time to learn—and apply—God’s rules for talking with your friends. You’ll be glad you did.
RESPOND
Dear Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Amen.
RENEWING RESOURCES 
A Young Woman After God’s Own Heart—With over 500,000 copies sold, this classic helps teenagers to live God in their everyday life. Gift a copy of this biblically-encouraging book to your daughter to help her navigate school.
REFLECT
Make a plan now to how you will respond to your friends when you disagree.
REMEMBER
Make it your aim to create harmony in your friendships.
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Jim and Elizabeth George are bestselling authors and national speakers dedicated to helping people live a life after God’s own heart. Together, they have written over 150 books with more than 14 million copies sold around the world. For over 35 years, the teachings and steadfast example of Elizabeth and Jim have helped countless men and women:
Jim and Elizabeth George are bestselling authors and national speakers dedicated to helping people live a life after God’s own heart. Together, they have written over 150 books with more than 14 million copies sold around the world. For over 35 years, the teachings and steadfast example of Elizabeth and Jim have helped countless men and women:
When something difficult happens in your life, are you ever tempted to ask, “What good could come out of this?” The event looks like a disaster. It feels like a disaster. Therefore, we quickly conclude, it is a disaster! But God did not forget His people who were suffering in Babylon. And, my friend, He won’t forget you!
Too many times in the past I’ve told others “I’m fine” in order to hide my pain and sorrows from them. The truth is, my thoughts pulled me down so far that, in private, tears regularly streamed down my face. Are you constantly thinking negative thoughts? Being a woman after God’s own heart is all about “minding your mind.”
As a young mother, I endeavored to “train a child in the way he should go,” so that “when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). A decade later, however, I wasn’t reaping the results I had expected. Angrily, I said to God, “But this isn’t the way it was supposed to be! This isn’t the way it went for this family here or that family over there. And this isn’t the way it was supposed to be for my family!”