Every Friday after school, I usually go to church and spend my time their before we have our youth meetings. I love being in church even if there is no service going on. I feel nice and tranquil and it is an amazing atmosphere to be in. I also help and serve for the children's Sunday School and alhan classes on Saturday nights. My (Egyptian) friends usually ask me to hang out with them on Fridays and specifically Saturday nights and every Friday and every time I tell them that I am at church. For the past 6 months, they haven't been telling me to hang out on days that I am free or even at all. When I tell them to come over my house and hang out, they do not answer when I call or they never respond to my texts. They cut off communication with me because I am always at church. I do not want to stop going to church to spend a couple of hours of boredom with them. My parents also think that it is my fault that I "lost" my freinds because I grew up with them. I do not know what to do! Please help me!
Comments
Well, why arent your Egyptian friends going to church like you do?
I had this experience with American friends.
In my opinion, your friends that you had are not real friends...real
friends would accept you how u are, would respect you,
and also they are actually supposed to encourage each other
into going to church. Just pray about it...i mean..there is nothing
that you did wrong anyways. You are the innocent one going to church...
Idk..i hope this helps...im not really good at giving advice lol =]
1) Friends will not take you to heaven, God will.
2) What is important is that YOU are happy in what you do, not your friends. If you don't have fun with them, why miss church for them? Also, if there is a reason you do not enjoy spending time with them, you should make it known to them so that they may change their ways.
3) Jesus said "I am the way, the truth, and the life" not "your friends are the way, the truth, and the life"
4) If they were you're real friends, they would except you for who you are, and what you like to do. Especially your beliefs. They would respect you instead of trying to pressure you into doing other things.
I know its hard, im still going through it right now.
plus, your being persecuted for the faith, that makes you a martyr!!! ;D ;D ;D
if you have any questions, you can always pm me or just reply on here :)
Hope i helped, and god bless!!!!
Chris
As someone stated earlier, in your situation you should base your course of action on:
-what is right by God.
-what makes you happy.
The fact that you enjoy spending this much time in God's house, really speaks for your character [God bless]. Sometimes however, people who are not necessarily close to the church, don't understand that special bond and so they require a more worldly bond where human-to-human interaction is needed [which in their defense is not a bad thing at all, if anything its a normal thing].
So I must ask, have you tried maybe changing time slots [eg go out with them first, and then go to church?] I would just like to add that I think your friends need you more than you need them. So you should try your best to maintain them as friends, however if your left with nothing but a dead end, than i think the obvious choice speaks for itself.
it's not always easy to spend time with people when they are quite different to you, but sometimes God wants you to do that, so those people will understand more about Him.
Believe me, when you stay closer to God, you will reap the benefits and you will be a magnet to draw your friends closer to God. if they are lacking the light, then you be their light that guides then in the path leading to Christ.
Pray for me
I am going through the same thing ur going thru now with my egy friends.
i would suggest for you what i did, which is to find someone like you. I am pretty sure there is someone who wants to be in church all the time like you.
thats what happened with me and now i dont worry about it because my best friend is always with me in church too :)
hope that helps
and please never leave your service or the enjoyment of being in church for any other reason. It is worth a lot to be in church once you lose it, it will be very hard to come back.. May God be with you