The Spoken Word

Nurturing the Treasure of Friendship
Lloyd D. Newell
24 Oct 1999

True friendship maybe the highest expression of what it means to be human. Learning to rely on others and to care about them requires us to live outside ourselves and to suppress the selfish impulses that so often govern our lives. True friendship is a gift two people keep giving each other. Friendship expresses love in many ways, including listening, sharing, trusting and serving.

Learning to love our friends and to care about their needs and problem changes and enriches our lives. Part of friendship's miracle is the way it changes as it grows. There's nothing more commonplace then friendship, and yet there's nothing more remarkable.

The true friendship divided life's sorrow and make sweeter all life's joys. It's been said that to share with a friend is to see beauty twice, however, such precious relationship come at a price. Those who would experience the joys of friendship must sow the seeds of kindness, pull the weeds of selfishness, irrigate with the water of love and supply the shade of forgiveness.

The childhood playground adage that "he that would have a friend must be a friend" applies equally well to adult neighborhood and corporate office buildings.

Often our most neglected friends reside in our own homes. How important it is to cultivate our friendship with those who are closest to us? The best marriages are between spouses who are also best friends. And children who grow up with friends around the dinner table will have their hearts knit together in love with their parents and siblings. The same bonds of love and trust that make friendship possible also build successful families.

Over time, we learn to measure our friendship not by what they give to us but by what we give to them. True friends who love and serve each other, are yet another expression of God's perfect love for all of His children. It's beautiful to consider that men and women who learn all they can about friendship here may continue those heartfelt association hereafter. One day, one act and one moment at a time, we can nurture the kind of relationship that time can't diminish by treasuring our friends as reflections of God's limitless love.