• A friend is someone who listens without judging you right or wrong, good or bad, and gently helps you define your thoughts to regain perspective.
• When you’re feeling bad about yourself, a friend is there to remind you of all those positive qualities you may have forgotten.
• When you share with a friend, decision-making becomes easier and problems seem less critical.
• A friend gives you the priceless gift of time; time to share, to try out new ideas and rethink old ones.  No matter how often you’re together, you discover dimensions of yourself through the bonds and the mirror of friendship.
• A friend loves you for who you are, not what you do.  Feeling so accepted, you are able to set higher goals, try harder, and achieve more.
• Through close friendship, you learn the fine art of giving.  You expand, become more selfless, feel more deeply, and help more effectively.  See the happiness you bring to another person gives you a greater sense of well-being and increases your capacity to love.
• Wherever you go in life, whatever stage or place you reach, a friend who has entered your soul is always with you, gently guiding, faithfully following, and ever walking beside you.

– Sandra Sturtz Hauss

Developing the deeper friendships take time energy and commitment.  The first and ultimate relationship we should focus on is with our heavenly father followed by our relationship to our spouse and then trickles down to our kids, extended family members, friends, and others in our lives.

Sometimes our friends are close enough to our hearts that they are like family.  We feel comfortable around them.  We share laughter as well as dig deeper into the fears and struggles of life.  They are the people you know pray and encourage you no matter what that day brings.  Make sure you are continuing to be the kind of friend who allows your friends to celebrate and grow!