Greater love has no one than is, that he lays down his life for his friends.... And....... A sticks closer to you than a brother Those are two foundational verses on what friendship truly is. Ive noticed how people throw around the word friend. Its the same way we tend to throw around the word love. Theres no value in the word friend anymore as spoken through many lips. We think we have friends if we say, I got over thousands of Facebook friends or hundreds of twitters friends or followers. Weve diluted the word friend so much that we can say someone we never met before over a computer screen is our friend without batting an eye because he or she likes our comments or posts or if were attracted to that persons celebrity or their physical attributes. A friend is willing to die for you and stick closer to you than your own flesh and blood. A friend doesnt betray what was told to him and her in privacy. A friend loves you despite who you really are. A friend loves you and is there for you when you have money or not. Friends ARE NOT FAIR WEATHER FRIENDS. A real friend will tell you what you need to hear and not what you want to hear. Weve gotten to the point that were trying to see who can amass the most friends on social mediums and dont care if that are willing to die for us or if we willing to die for them. This is love......a friend who gives of himself or herself when theres nothing to give. How many of you have Facebook friends you actually know, spent time with, barring messaging back and forth on a site of course, converse with over holiday dinners, willing to fly across country to help them out of a dilemmas or financial crisis, know their friends childrens dreams, names, whereabouts, and schools they attend, or just know deep and important things about them? How many of are willing to invest the time, love, and consistency that it takes to nuture and cultivate a friendship with someone? Your Facebook friends are not your friends except for those individuals that actually are your friends as according to the above said qualifying attributes of a friend. Just because you knew someone for a long time doesnt make them a friend or having children by a man or woman becoming their babydaddy or babymomma doesnt make them friends either.....not saying that cant be friends if theyre following the friendship formula of love, sacrifice, consistency, not being a yes man. and respect, Friendships stay together...theyre not fragmented by circumstances and situations or the highs and lows of a day. Youre blessed in your lifetime to have one or two friends.....tops! Friendship is shown through actions and not through who you friend request. How many times have I seen posts about people venting about their Facebook friends not been active in their posts or talking to them? How many of you deleted friends because they never said two words to you and you think theyre taking up valuable Facebook space on friends lists? These people are not your friends. They are your associates, hi and bye people, classmates you knew from way back, people who are beautiful or nicely dressed so you added them to make your friend list more appealing, individuals youre attracted to so you started a conversation with them, but not a friend. How many of you thought certain people were your friends but when a bad or trying situation had arised, those so-called friends as your aptly named them were nowhere to be found? How many of you have so-called friends gossip about them, talk about them, and only come around when they want something from you? You need to change who you call a friend because everyone is not a friend. You need to change how frequent that word friend chimes out of your mouth. The fact that you have to address Facebook friends as your friends as opposed to everyday-in-the-trenches true friends is an indictment on your inability to know the difference between a friend and a passerby, associate, a hanger on, or an acquaintance. If you want a friend, show yourself to be friendly. You want the harvest or crop of friendship, plant the seed of being a friend. Do you want a friend so bad that youre willing to let anyone invade your circle and take from you physically, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally instead of adding to you and appreciating you? Ask that question everytime you add a friend on Facebook and in life.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 17:34:10 +0000