I got this email about 10,000 times as a chain letter... wanted to pass it on.
"A story tells of two friends who were walking through desert. During some point of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand: 'TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE.' They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him. After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone: 'TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE.' The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, 'After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?' The other friend replied 'When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it.' Learn to write your hurts in the sand and to carve your blessings in stone. They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them." The importance of friendship is accentuated in the Bible. "A friend sticketh closer than a brother," and "Faithful are the wounds of a friend" (Prov. 18:24; 27:6). Friendship and anger cannot co-exist. The advice by Solomon was therefore not to "make no friendship with an angry man" (Prov. 22:24). It makes good sense that we record all differences in the sand so they will not remain to cause anger. Jesus had to lay down His remembrances of injustices before He could find willingness to lay down His life for us (Jn. 15:13). Friendship is not an accidental occurrence, but intentional and a cultivated relationship. Solomon instructed that "A man that hath friends must show himself friendly" (Prov. 18:24). It is so important for us to understand that "A friend loveth at all times" (Prov.17:17). It would behoove each of us as Christians to make friends and put forth every effort to be loyal and keep them... --> x -->