Thursday, January 16, 2014

Life Long Friends




One of our awesome sixth graders had a cool article for the blog that I thought I'd pass along to all of you.  Thanks, Adam!

When I moved to Chapel Hill Christian School I expected the first day would be hard, not knowing any of my peers. What I didn’t expect was that after that day, I was accepted by others with a kind word here and there.  Friendships started to grow both in and out of the classroom.

Having moved to and from many different schools, I expected the normal difficulties in building friendships.  I was concerned about being an outsider and not being accepted.  However, I was surprised that the other kids befriended me right away.

As I entered my second year, I challenged myself to be kind to the new students just like others had been kind to me the year before.  I knew how the new kids felt, and I didn’t want to just forget about them just because my friends were already set up.   They hadn’t abandoned me; and of course, I was reminded of the Scripture text from Luke 6:31, which says, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Following through on building relationships, whether or not I really wanted to, has changed my life.  I now have friends that I will carry with me into the future.  But I’ve also learned that when God calls me out of my comfort zone into service in the lives of others, it allows Him to work in my life in special ways. 

The memories that these friends have created together through the past two years will be remembered far into the future.  As we move on to graduation from sixth grade and prepare for middle school, the things we’ve learned together, the conversations we’ve had and the experiences we’ve shared, like Michigan Trip, Medieval Fair and our service projects, will give us life-long companions.