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Friendship
by Dana Peters-Colley
The Dictionary definition for the words friend and friendly are : one attached to another by affection or esteem; acquaintance; one who is not hostile toward you; someone who supports or favors something; showing kindly interest and good will; serving a beneficial or helpful purpose; favorable; comforting; cheerful.
The Dictionary reference for the word friendship is the state of being friends.
The Concordance of the Bible states that the meaning for friends is an associate, a companion, a brother, a fellow, a friend, a husband, a lover, a neighbor, to have affection for, love, tend to a flock, companion, keep company with.
John 15:13
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Walter Winchell
A real friend is someone who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.
Proverbs 22:24-25
Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go: lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.
Aristotle
What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.
Alice Walker
No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.
Rachel Naomi Remen
The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention…A loving silence has far more power to heal and connect than the most well-intentioned words.
Proverbs 18:24
A man that hath friends must show himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
Friendship can go in three directions.
Friendship can go in three directions. First, you put yourself out there and relate to another human being. If they get your jokes, your values, and you have some way of connecting, you form a friendship. I don’t know about you, but I have some people that when we connect, we immediately sense one another where there is immediate safety to be ourselves and there’s no judgment over what we say, there is unconditional love and acceptance. This is the first way that friendship is directed, out vertically to another person and it is good. To be understood and accepted is what we crave as people, no matter who we are. Still, they can’t share every part of my life, so I am still missing something that I feel like I was made to experience.
Next there is the direction of friendship when it goes south. Either we change, or they change or someone says something, or does something, and the relationship goes south. Sometimes, we can get in there and repair it, but other times it might be God’s way of telling us that there’s another place we are supposed to be going, or other people we are supposed to be going there with. Listening to those prods from above can lead us into greater destinies, and if we have courage, we will allow ourselves the right to move on.
The third kind of friendship is the best one there is. This is the friend that sticks closer than a brother, and knows our every thought and plan. Did you know that God wants to be your friend? He actually created you to know Him. I remember years ago, I told a young guy who was about 19 that he ought to try and just talk to God and see what happened. He went to his father’s house that night, sat under the stars in a spa, and talked to heaven. He was literally surprised to have a sudden sense of God’s presence and felt Him talk back. This was his first encounter with the best Friend there is, Jesus Christ.
If you haven’t met Him yet, now is your chance. Just ask Jesus to reveal to you if He is real. That’s all you have to do. It really is that simple. You see, God made it simple because He doesn’t want your life to be complicated. He wants to help you in all your ways and show you a better way. That’s what being a Friend is. When you care about someone, you will go the extra mile, you’ll be there to listen, and you will care about that person. That’s the way God thinks about you. Yes, as you walk with Him you’ll have to change some things, but they probably won’t be the things you thought you had to change. God is concerned with the you that is on the inside. He is concerned with your heart, and your journey, and your future. He wants the inside of you to be the best it can be. He determined that the only way to do that is to come inside of you, if you’ll give Him permission. He’ll come in with His light and surround you with His love, and you will discover that the one true friend you always wanted, you now have.
There you have it: three directions of friendships. To your pals here on earth, there is one kind of direction where you have a person you can be friends with.. Then, there is the direction it turns when you are either being released from it, or have turned it going in the wrong direction. Last and best of all, the kind of friend you can take every bit of you to, who won’t get angry at you for whatever it is you have to confess, and wants the best for you. It’s almost
