DO YOU HAVE FRIENDS?

WHO ARE YOUR FRIENDS?

“I can be on guard against my enemies,

But God deliver me from my FRIENDS!”

~ Charlotte Bronte, Letters of Charlotte Bronte

The Dictionary defines a friend as “A Person whom one knows and with whom one has a bound of mutual affection, typically exclusive of sexual or family relations”

So who is your friend? “Iron Sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.” Proverbs 27:17. There are two types of Friendships; there is the Nourishing Friendship and the Toxic Friendship.

NOURISHING FRIENDSHIPS are those that proverbs 27:17 speak of. They bring out the best in you, encourage you, and stand by you at all times. They are the type Leo Buscaglia describes as “A single rose can be my garden…..a single friend, my world” they are the type Hubert H. Humphrey rejoiced about “The greatest gift of Life is friendship, and I have received it.” Do you have a friend? It’s a precious thing friendship; Helen Keller must have had a good dose of good friends as she puts it “Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.”  Blessed is he or she that finds such a friend, Loyal, Trust Worthy, Reliable and Consistent. A quote at the end of a poem reads “Angels exist, but they sometimes don’t have wings, we call them friends”

On the flip side we have the Toxic Friends, who are pretentious, self seeking, crafty and corny. They are the Wolf in Sheep’s clothing. They are dream killers, Opportunist and Unstable. These are the type of Friend Charlotte Bronte Prayed to God to deliver her from. An African proverbs state that “If there is no enemy within, the enemy without can do us no harm”

Many have had negative experiences with people they have trusted and called friends. Shakespeare Julius Caesar’s last words were “Et tu, Brute. Italian poet of the middle ages Durante Degli Aligheri simply called Dante places Brutus and Cassius in the lowest circle of Hell because they had chosen to betray their friend Julius Caesar rather than their Country Rome, a thought the late MKO Abiola shares as he constantly referred to IBB as his friend and that he will rather Betray his Country than Betray his Friend. It’s a believe I think the late Areona Kakanfo held to his Grave. Was Brutus and Cassius, Caesar’s Friends? Was IBB, MKO’s friend?

Do you need a friend?

Knowing the negative outcome some friendship can produce, do you need a friend? We all need friends in our lives. Joseph Addison (1672-1719) says “The greatest sweetener of human life is friendship. To raise this to the highest pitch of enjoyment, is a secret which but few discover” we just need to chose wisely who our friends are. The best way is by being a True Friend as Proverbs 18:24 says “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother." Be the friend you want to see and together we will build a better world

“Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend” ~ Albert Camus

Now go look for a Nourishing Friend, by making yourself one.