This post is part of our "Purpose Driven Life" book study, the first official Christian Boylove Forum book study. If you would like to join in, do not be discouraged by the thought that it's too late. The book is designed to be read one chapter per day but we only study one chapter every Monday and Thursday in this forum, so if you read it at the book's recommended pace, you will catch up with us very quickly. If you do not own the book, you can read the first few chapters for free here: http://www.purposedrivenlife.com/en-US/AboutUs/AboutTheBook/FirstSevenChapters.htm while you look for the book in your local bookstores or wait for it to arrive from an online merchant.

This is the second chapter on friendship with God. Three elements are explored: Honesty, Obedience and Drawing Near to God.

Each one of these has its own special challenges for us as boylovers.
When it comes to Honesty with God, can we come to terms with the reality that God will accept us when many, many others around us do not?
When it comes to obedience to God, can we face the challenges of our particular struggles with temptations when there are so few, if any, people that we can ask for help in our face to face lives.
And when it comes to drawing near to God, can we embrace the idea that God wants intimacy with us when society around us thinks we are the lowest of the low? Do we struggle to have the self-esteem that can embrace the idea that God really does care about us?

The Scriptures encourage us on all these fronts that God does indeed care about friendship with us.

to participate actively in the book study, feel free to respond to this post or to any of the discussion questions Cat or anyone else posts below. You don't necessarily need to respond to what is written on this post, you may prefer instead to talk about the parts of the chapter that spoke to you even if it wasn't something mentioned on this post. You may also pose your own discussion questions.