Friendship

"They are rich who have friends."
-Scandinavian Proverb

These last couple of years I have thought about this subject of friendship. I'm not talking about coveting the friendship of the world, but about being a friend. I have lots of good acquaintances, specially in the homeschooling world, but few true friends.

"A man that hath friends must show himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother" Proverbs 18:24

So I've endeavored to practice this proverb and learn to be a friend. People often want to have friends but for many reasons don't reach out and make some.

"To have a friend is to have one of the sweetest gifts that life can bring: to be a friend is to have a solemn education of soul from day to day."
-Amy Robertson Brown

I've made three good friendships these last few years. But there's one in particular that touched my heart this weekend. You see this friend and I, come from two different world's, sort of speak, yet we have some things in common and it's so sweet to think I can call her my friend and she can look at me and think the same. To have someone call you that is an honor and humbling too.

"My friend is not perfect-no more am I- and so we suit each other admirably."
-Alexander Smith

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,and the truth is not in us." - I John 1:8

Friends can be like flower blooms that fade at the end of their season. I have learned there's only one friend that will never leave me. I've also learned that while I have a bosom friend I should take care to be the friend God would want me to be.

"Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." -Proverbs 27:17

"For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself." - Romans 14:7

There's something else I find in friendship. There needs to be space. Space to let the other person be a friend. Space to let them walk away. Space to make more friends.

"So long as we love we serve; so long as we are loved by others, I would almost say that we are indispensable; and no man is useless while he has a friend."
-Robert Louis Stevenson

So I dedicate this post to my friends.