An understanding of the basics of friendship is very crucial to what we do in friendships. Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between two or more people.
There are two observations that emerge from this definition which I want to bring to your notice; the first is: Friendship is a Relationship. Every friendship is a relationship but not every relationship is necessarily a friendship.
Friendship is just a subset of relationship. To befriend a person is to relate with the person. If you fail to relate with people, you cannot be in friendship with them. How you relate with people will determine the kind of friendship you build with them.
You can be directly related to people or closely related to them, in order to have them as friends. You can as well be intimately related or not. It is still true that every lasting relationship begins with genuine friendship.
The second observation is: Friendship requires Mutuality. For you to be together with another person in friendship there must be a mutual connection between you and that person. There must be mutuality in your friendship.
This means, when you see yourself as a friend to somebody you must not exempt yourself from the things that happen in that person’s life. You must not exclude yourself from the experiences of your friends. You have to identify with them in times of happiness and sadness, moments of joy and sorrow, and seasons of excitement and bitterness.
There must be a sense of mutual belongingness in your friendship. There must be mutual empathy, mutual honesty, mutual compassion, mutual affection, mutual trust, mutual understanding and even mutual benefits. You cannot be mutually exclusive to the things that happen in the life of your friends and still identify yourself as their friend.
5 things to know about your friend
- Your Friend Will Believe In Your Dream And Future.
- Your Friend Will Strengthen Your Passion For Your Dream And Future.
- Your Friend Can Become The Mid-Wife For The Birth Of Your Dream And Future.
- God Will Use Your Friend To Make Additional Investments Into Your Life.
- The Friend You Fail To Make Will Surprisingly Leave Your Life.
Kind regards,
JOHN ARTHUR,
PRESIDENT,
THE SCHOOL OF FRIENDSHIP.
To read more about friendship, we recommend you to get a copy our book, "Who is your friend?". It will help you to know about friendship and your true friends.
