FRIENDS…

Have you ever wondered how many friends you’ve had throughout your life? I certainly have. And although I’ve tried to come up with a specific number, I’ve found it impossible to recall them all at once. However, I started a list where I jot down names as I remember them.

My list includes several categories: friends from a specific time in life, temporary best friends, lifelong best friends, friends who have become family, and friends who have been with me forever. And regardless of the category in which I place a name, I remember each of them with nostalgia, joy, love, and a sense of shared connection.

FRIENDSHIP is a feeling of affection that arises between two or more living beings and grows through frequent interaction. It helps us forge bonds of solidarity, loyalty, mutual understanding, love, or affinity in a pure and selfless way. This inclination to feel affection for someone with whom we enjoy sharing our time helps us feel alive and develop empathy for the world around us.

I have often heard that having a friend during difficult times helps one bear the pain or sadness caused by adversity with a sense of calm. Friends help us grow and learn from different perspectives, making us better human beings. With friends, we can be ourselves without fear of judgment, acting freely and without inhibition, because they accept us just as we are. In this way, we mutually accept each other’s flaws and virtues, celebrating successes and consoling one another through failures with love.

History offers great examples of true friendships between human beings, transcending the controversies of the world we live in. For the word, FRIEND knows no boundaries regarding religion, gender, ideology, identity, race, skin color, language, age, or profession, nor does it carry labels of social or economic status. There exists only the perfect balance of the purest feeling the human heart can experience—LOVE—from which springs another profound and unconditional bond known as FRIENDSHIP.

Let us value and respect our friends just as they are, and they will value and respect us just as we are. Friends, remember that friendship reflects God’s love for us. The Bible teaches us that a true friend loves at all times, especially in times of distress (Proverbs 17:17). Friends offer counsel that gladdens the heart and fosters growth (Proverbs 27:9). A true friend is loyal and stands by us during difficult times (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10). A friend can offer loving correction, proving more faithful than a hypocritical flatterer (Proverbs 27:6). Let us live out friendship by being faithful friends—first to Jehovah, and then to everyone else.