Inner Beauty Articles

The Risky Business of Friendship

If the truth be said, we all need friends and we all need to learn how to be a friend. I have been having a few random thoughts on friendship lately and realised that a true friend is one who knows all about you and loves you anyway! The type of a person who will joyfully sing with you when you are on the mountaintop, and silently walk beside you through the valley.

John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this; that one lay down his life for his friends.”

You may have a friend who cannot keep confidences. We’ve all had a share of this type! She will do anything for you…..except keep her mouth closed. She is your personal broadcasting system! But because you love her please don’t write her off as a friend, simply learn to be cautious about what you tell her.

I think every friendship has a price tag dangling from it. Every friendship involves a cost, a risk. 1 Peter 4:8 encourages us to take the risk, to pay the price, to love them anyway, because “love covers a multitude of sins.” In this verse, “cover” literally means to “hide or overlook” the faults of others. We know that the faults are there, but we choose to love that person anyway…which is exactly the response we want from a friend.

We were created to bear each other’s burdens, to need each other. Don’t spend another day longing for friendship. Take the first step…take a risk. Be a friend! Here is something interesting to do.

  • Make a list of the five most important friendships in your life.
  • What sacrifices have you made in those friendships? What sacrifices have those friends made for you?
  • What one change do you need to make in order to be a better friend?
  • Make a plan for implementing that change…today!

I know many people think, I don’t really need friends. I can do life on my own. For years, I had the same attitude…until one day, while sitting at the bottom of a dark pit, I realized that one of the reasons I was there was because I had invested very little in friendships. My schedules were always filled to the point where there seem to be no room for friends, but now I often wonder why we don’t use busyness as a safer substitute for the risky business of friendship. I encourage you to step out in faith, take the risk and invest time in a new friend. God will honour and bless it!

Friends are for life!

Love

Mercy