I -like most, if not all, people- want to be a good friend.
In my short life I have learnt some of the ups and downs of friendship. (This post
is not going to be a reminiscence of my friendships :p) however, it has
appeared to me over time that there is a running theme or underlying principle
to what makes a good friend.
It
appears in the friend who shuffles around a busy life to spend half a day on
the other side of the city simply hanging out. In the friend who decides to
spontaneously buy you dinner. I see it in the friend who takes the time to ask -and listen- to how ones day/week/month has been. It’s evident by a friend doing
things they feel uncomfortable doing, but know I appreciate. It comes in the
form of a compromise in favour of the friend.
Whether
it is attention, time, money, priorities, choices... When people lay down their
own needs, desires, preferences, opinions and/or commitments to value someone
else; that is heart warming stuff!!
I
guess it can be summed up as laying down one’s
life for another. Not literally ones life, but ultimately it could go to that
extreme. Rather it’s in the small things like letting my time be spent cheering
up a friend rather than buried in a book, or visiting an unknown place in order to fulfill a promise to a friend rather than stay in my comfort zone, or going to see
a movie I know is not my genre but will enjoy nonetheless because I am with friends...
What that sort of
friendship shows, is love. Not the kind of love that is romantic or the one
that expects something in return (although it’ll probably be reciprocal). Sometimes, giving things up, can actually mean we gain more. Living “without” could result in a richer fuller life.
I’d like
to love my friends better, I want to be more than a good friend; I want to be
a true friend.
*John 15:13
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