Friends

“Friends are people with whom you dare to be yourself. Your soul can be naked with them. They ask you to put on nothing, only to be what you are. They do not want you to be better or worse. When you are with them, you feel as a prisoner feels who has been declared innocent. You do not have to be on your guard. You can say what you think, as long as it is genuinely you. Friends understand those contradictions in your nature that lead others to misjudge you. With them you breathe freely. You can avow your little vanities and envies and hates and vicious sparks, your meannesses and absurdities, and in opening them up to friends, they are lost, dissolved on the white ocean of their loyalty. They understand. You do not have to be careful. You can abuse them, neglect them, tolerate them. Best of all, you can keep still with them. It makes no matter. They like you. They are like fire that purges to the bone. They understand. You can weep with them, sing with them, laugh with them, pray with them. Through it all and underneath, they see, know, and love you. A friend? What is a friend? Just one, I repeat, with whom you dare to be yourself.”*

True friendship is a beautiful thing!  The book of Proverbs highlights several key traits of a good friend.  Here are some of them: 1) “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity” (Proverbs 17:17).  2) “A man of too many friends comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24). 3) “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy” (Proverbs 27:6).

I hope you have a friend like the one described in the Bible.  That type of friend is a gift that is priceless.  But even better, how about being that kind of friend to someone else?

God loves you!

Mike

*C. Raymond Beran, Bits and Pieces, September 19, 1991, pp. 3-4