On the Eleventh Day of Christmas...

...my true left gave to me eleven Pipers Piping. I bet they made a racket, but again this is a gift I would love to receive.

Have you ever felt betrayed, disappointed or let down by a friend? I am sure that you have, most if not all of us have experienced this with people we had considered to be friends.

We all have people we can call friends; some closer than others, and some of us have more than others. To be honest, there are different levels of friendship, many of our friends are people who come and go throughout our lives for a season, there is a large number whom we would call aquaintences, some are friends while we work with them, live near them or perhaps because they are in social groups we belong to, but there are very few people we can call close, or our special friends.

Some say that the Bible is out of date and irrelevant, and yet throughout it's pages we read examples of modern living, others say that it is relevant and a place we can find answers to many of life's questions and find understanding for our trials and tribulations.

Eleven Pipers Piping represents the eleven faithful apostles of Jesus, He hand-picked twelve to be His special friends but one betrayed HIm. It is very hard when we are let down by a friend, Jesus knows this only too well, but on the flip side, we have other friends on whom we can depend.

It is so easy to feel negative, however, we do need to remember not to let the negativity take over and ruin the rest of our life. We need to remember all those good and kind things our friends do for us. We are all human and all make mistakes; some worse than others; none of us is infallible.

So next time a friend lets us down in some way, particularly if they have walked out of our lives, let us think of all those times when they have been good to us. Let us also remember the good friends still in our lives.