President Abraham Lincoln said, "I'm a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn't have that heart to let him down." Friendship is a relationship of great significance in our lives. It's a relationship we cannot ignore and succeed.
“There is no great success and outstanding achievement on earth without the input of friendship.” – John Arthur.
Friendship unveils potentials and abilities. This is why it's important for us to learn to keep friends in our lives. There are three basic concepts I want us to take note of before we examine the depth of how to keep friends.
1. You cannot keep every friend you make.
2. You cannot afford to lose every friend you have.
3. It is not enough to make friends; it's important to keep the right friends we make.
WHAT IT MEANS TO KEEP FRIENDS
Keeping friends simply means maintaining the levels of friendship you have with people. It means remaining in friendship with people no matter where they are and the who you become. If you want to keep friends, you must first and foremost determine the kinds of friends you have in your life and clearly define all the levels of friendships you have with them.
“You cannot keep all the friends you make at the same level of friendship.” – John Arthur.
No matter how high you rise in life, never ignore your system of friendship with those you have in your life. There should still be the maintenance and availability of friendship between you and them.
3 KEYS TO KEEPING FRIENDS
1. Commitment
Commitment is a necessary ingredient for keep friends in our lives. No friendship could be sustained without commitment. Any friend who is not really committed to you is not your friend; just allow them to be who they think they are. You cannot force a friendship, because friendship is not by force; it's by choice.
“Friendship is not built on circumstances or convenience; it's built on commitment.” – John Arthur.
"Anyone you call a true friend should be someone whose commitment to you is not dependent on circumstances" - Apostle Joshua Selman. Jesus Christ said, "Ye are my friends if you do.. ". There is something you must do to validate your presence as a friend to others. You cannot be a friend and do nothing. Your commitment is necessary to keeping the friends God schedules into your life
2. Communication
This has been one of the topmost keys for keeping friends and developing friendships. Friendships that ignore the place of effective communication, die without announcement. Busyness has killed many friendships.
It doesn't take much to stay connected to your friends through communication. These days of technological advancement have even made communication so easy for friends. You can send a text message, send voice note, give a video call, chat with them, or even give a phone call. You can schedule a face to face meeting time with friends just to talk with them.
Yet, many of us ignore the place of communication in friendship so much that, even on a friend's birthday, we just send them a message on WhatsApp without giving them a phone call. It's not nice. Those who have no TIME for friendship, never HAVE great and lasting friendships in life. Friendship requires TIME.
“You may not be able to call every friend on their birthdays, but your core and intimate friends deserve more than just a message on WhatsApp. Go beyond this.” – John Arthur.
3. Compassion
Compassion is simply showing acts of kindness beyond sympathy. It takes compassionate people to keep friends on earth. True compassion could even turn an enemy into a friend.
Compassion is what helps us to forgive our friends when they hurt us and do something wrong against us. Compassion is what helps us to look beyond the limitations, failures, mistakes, and imperfections of our friends and still believe for God to bring something good out of their lives. You cannot keep a friend, if you have no compassion in your heart.
Kind regards,
JOHN ARTHUR,
AUTHOR | SPEAKER | PRESIDENT,
THE SCHOOL OF FRIENDSHIP.