A true friend is rare to find but as the Book of Sirach says, “He who finds a faithful friend, finds a rare treasure” (Sirach 6:14-16).
I believe the difference between a happy successful person and a loser is the quality of friendships.
After 20 years of making and culling friends, this has become my ABC of friendship. Check your friends by this list:
(A)ccepts you as you are
(B)elieves in you
(C)alls you just to say "Hi"
(D)oesn't give up on you
(E)nvisions the whole of you (even the unfinished parts)
(F)orgives your mistakes
(G)ives unconditionally
(H)elps you
(I)nvites you over
(J)ust hangs with you
(K)eeps you close at heart
(L)oves you for who you are
(M)akes a difference in your life
(N)ever judges
(O)ffers support
(P)icks you up
(Q)uietens your fears
(R)aises your spirits
(S)ays nice things about you
(T)ells you the truth when you need to hear it
(U)nderstands you
(V)alues you
(W)alks beside you
(X)plains things you don't understand
(Y)ells when you won't listen and
(Z)aps you
back to reality when you start to forget your humanity.
For a large
part of my life, Jesus was uniquely all these things to me. Since my “fall from
grace” I have found a very few people who exercise most of these roles. Its not
important how many friends you have who tick all of these boxes, as long as you
have someone who does. In my case now its my wife.
However, as
I say to people who feel depression destroying their will to live, “Don’t count
how many friends you have, count how many people you are a friend to”. Its more
important to create friendships than to find friends. As one wise person said, “Seek to be a friend
and you will indeed attract friends to you”.
No comments:
Post a Comment