If everything you need to know about life is in your fish bowl, then it’s important to know who you are swimming with. In our bowl are some swimming buddies who will be good friends to us and teach us how to be good friends ourselves.

The first fish friend we want to look at is the clownfish. In the movie, Finding Nemo, this is Nemo himself. He represents the child-like friends we all need in our lives. Child-like people have never lost their sense of wonder or adventure. They still have some innocence left. Spiritually, they don’t make their relationship with God complex. Like children, they trust God just because he IS God and can be trusted.

When Jesus described what it takes to make a deep real life connection with God he said this: "I assure you, unless you turn from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. (Matthew 18:3-4)

Jesus told us that to really connect with God and to find the kind of life he wants us to live; we will need to have the humility of a child.

Facts on child-like friendship:

1. Child-like friends help us see the good and trust God. Child-like people love life and look on the bright side of things. Too many of us have left behind most of our child-like qualities. One of the best ways I know of recovering our childlikeness is to swim with people who have those qualities. Play with kids. Play their way, don’t direct them. Get them to talk about life and God. Listen to them pray. Go into the kid world and rediscover what you’ve lost or find some adult friends who still have that strong sense of adventure and wonder and spend time with them. Children and child-like friends can teach us a lot about simple pleasures and simple faith.

2: Fun friends feed our souls. I love the way one of the Bible’s Proverbs puts this: "For the happy heart, life is a continual feast." (Proverbs 15:15). I’ve never met a sad or depressed person full of energy. Happy people are the ones living life to the full. Happy, good-natured people help the rest of us lighten up. Some of the best friends you’ll ever have are the people who can make you laugh and the best are the people who can make you laugh at yourself.

Don’t forget the fun factor as you put together your mix of friends. Fun-filled friends fill our souls with love and laughter. So, if you don’t have any fun, child-like Nemo’s in your school of friends, go out and catch a few.

The second clownfish is Nemo’s father, Marlin. As we saw in the clip, the plot of the movie revolves around Nemo being caught by divers and his dad making it his personal mission to find the boy and bring him back home.

Listen to these words by Jesus about his life’s mission, "I, the Son of Man, have come to seek and to save the lost." I think it’s interesting that the Bible calls people who haven’t found the forgiveness Jesus offers, "Captives to sin." Sin takes us and holds us hostage to a godless self-centered life of hurting and being hurt. Jesus and Marlin the Clownfish have this in common; their mission is life or death. If the lost ones are not found and set free from captivity, they will be lost forever.

For Nemo’s father, Marlin, and for Jesus, just letting the lost stay lost is not acceptable. Both are willing to risk all, to sacrifice their own lives to do something to rescue the ones they love. We need our child-like friends to get us to lighten up enough to enjoy our lives. We need our Jesus-like friends, our Marlin-type, mission-driven friends, our spiritual mentors and leaders, to get us serious about our life’s mission.

Facts about Jesus-like friends:

1. Jesus-like friends lead us to live beyond ourselves. I was in my twenties when a close friend of mine was influenced by a Jesus-like pastor who turned him on to investing his life in bringing Jesus to other guys and helping them follow him as their savior and life’s leader. I was so impressed by his passion and growth that I asked my friend to help me learn how to live that way. A few months later, I was hooked and had gathered a small group of guys together to learn how to be men with a strong commitment to following and becoming like Jesus. None of us in that group were ever the same. We had discovered the core mission for our lives. It was life or death for our friends and we needed to have the commitment and skills necessary to help spiritually lost people find God. My Jesus-like friend Brad helped me learn to live beyond myself.

2. Jesus-like friends appreciate our strengths and accept our weaknesses.

Another great characteristic of Marlin the Clownfish is his willingness to accept Dory’s help -- even though she is dingy and forgetful. Because Marlin accepts her and lets her come along in his quest to find Nemo, he later benefits from the hidden assets she had within her, like the ability to speak whale and read English. Like Dory, all of us have deficits, weaknesses and limits, but we all have assets too, things possibly hidden that we can contribute to the cause. Jesus-like friends, like Marlin, accept us, bring us along on the mission and help us uncover what we can contribute to the cause.

Has anyone ever seriously challenged you to live beyond yourself, to move beyond your limitations to discover whatever strengths and abilities are within you that can be used to serve God and help other people? If you have Jesus-like people among your friends, they WILL do that, because they are on a mission that impacts people’s eternal destinies and they need all the help they can get.

There’s one last type of friend we need in the fishbowls of our lives -- the Royal Blue Tang Fish, also know as the "Dory types." Dory’s are the ever loyal, always there for us and always good for us true-blue friends.

Another one of the Bible’s Proverbs about friendship says, "There are "friends" who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother. (Proverbs 18:24)

Boil down this proverb and you’ll come away with these two facts:

1. True-blue friends stick with us.

2. Untrue friends stick it to us.

Let’s add another proverb to the mix. "A friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need." (Proverbs 17:17)

I think we all get the point here so let me offer you a few simple questions to test the quality of your friendships using the guidelines from the Proverbs, the Bible’s book on wise living:

Are my friends good TO me?

To be right and fair, we need to take the test too. We need to ask ourselves,

Can I pass the true-blue test?

Am I good FOR others?

Am I good TO others?