Week 14: Godly friendship - Jonathan

Pardon the Mess with Scarlet Hiltibidal - Christian Motherhood, Biblical Parenting, Raising Christian Kids

Scarlet Hiltibidal and Christian Parenting

Christianity, Parenting, Religion & Spirituality, Kids & Family

4.9 • 850 Ratings

🗓️ 8 December 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

Jonathan went to find David and encouraged him to stay strong in his faith in God. (1 Samuel 23:16 NLT)

Jonathan and David were opposites and unlikely friends, but their friendship was so strong that it continues to be cited as a prime example of a God-honoring friendship to this day. Jonathan had every reason to feel envious of David: Jonathan was heir to the throne, yet God chose David to be king. Jonathan even risked his life to protect David from his father and strengthen David in the Lord when he needed it.

Jonathan was a selfless and loyal friend who continually pointed David back to God. No doubt, God placed Jonathan in David’s life for a reason. He knew that David would need a friend to strengthen him in his role, his confidence, and his faith.

Friendships come and go, and the friends our kids have right now may or may not be their friends in the future. There is a time and place for temporary friendships—friendships that are fun and fulfilling and safe, but don’t stand the test of time for one reason or another. It’s the lifelong friendships that are sacred. The friendships where you know the other person is with you no matter what and will challenge you to be a better person and a more faithful Christ follower. Our desire as parents should be that our kids have at least one of those friends.

This week, let’s pray that our kids are not fair-weather friends. Let’s pray that they are committed, loyal, selfless friends who strengthen their friends’ faith in God. And let’s pray they find those same friends in return.

Father God, please help __________ to be a God-honoring and good friend to others. Help them to say no to jealousy, gossip, and comparison and yes to compassion, encouragement, and joy in their friendships. Help them to find friends who sharpen and strengthen their faith in you and may you be the center of all their relationships. Amen.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Christian Parenting.
0:03.5	Hey friends, welcome back to Pardon in the Mess.
0:16.5	I'm your host, Courtney Defeo, and I love this topic.
0:20.0	I don't think I could come across a mom that wouldn't want to pray for friendships, godly friendships for your kids. This is something that we all want in our lives. And so very, very important topic to pray about. But we learn about this from Jonathan. And 1st Samuel and 2nd Samuel, we learned about Jonathan and David's friendship.
0:40.2	It is cited in the Bible as a God-honoring friendship.
0:45.0	And so right there, I want to say, like, it's not just have a million friends, have all these followers on Facebook.
0:47.4	Like, we want God-honoring friends.
0:56.5	It's not to say your child's entire bubble needs to be Christians, but they need a few right in their innermost circle. And so do we as parents.
1:01.8	And so what we learned about Jonathan in 1st Samuel 2316, it says Jonathan went to find David and encouraged him to stay strong in his faith in God. That's a good friend right there.
1:07.2	Jonathan is encouraging David to stay strong in his faith and God. And so think back to
1:12.0	your own life. Like who are Jonathan's in your life? And maybe we just pray just gratitude today.
1:17.2	And I'm not going to name mine because I will miss somebody, but I have so many friends that are
1:20.8	like this in my life. But what we learn about Jonathan is that he was a selfless and loyal friend
1:26.0	and continually pointed David back to God.
1:28.9	We want that for our kids.
1:30.6	What we learn about God is that he really does care who we surround ourselves with.
1:34.3	He cares about who our kids are surrounded with.
1:37.2	In Proverse 1320, it says, walk with the wise and become wise for a companion of full suffers harm.
1:43.4	I've talked about this verse at nauseam with my
1:46.0	kids to say like who you surround yourself with matters. You will start looking and talking and
1:51.4	dressing like these people. And so who are you around? Who are your closest friends? Do they have a
1:57.6	genuine faith? And it's not again to say they can't have friends that don't love Jesus, but who were your inner most circle? Are you spending time with them? In Hebrews 1024, I also love this verse. It says, let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. And I love those mutual friends that you know, I'm going to spur you on when you're down, and you're going to spur me on when I'm down and we are ultimately together going to be a friendship that's about God and pointing each other back to God. I want to just remind you of a couple things that you know, but remind you of this, friendship is hard. And so if you're like, what is wrong with me? Friendship is hard. It's hard for adults. It's hard for kids. And so just remember that. You're not doing it wrong. There's
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