Friendship Therapy Tips

Avoid Liars

Avoid "friends" who lie to you. The following illustration says it all:

A young girl found a small snake almost frozen to death. "Little girl, I am going to die if you don't help me," the snake implored. "Please put me under your coat and warm me."
"But you are a poisonous snake! You will bite and kill me!" protested the girl.
"Oh, no, child. I could never hurt the one who saved my life."
So the little girl took pity on the half-frozen snake and held him to her bosom until he was warm and lively again. Then the snake suddenly lunged and struck her in the neck with his fangs.
"You lied!" cried the horrified girl. "You said you would never hurt me!"
"Ah," replied the snake as he slithered away, "but you knew what I was when you picked me up."

Proverbs 18:21, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof."

Comments

   

I Prayed For a Friend

I Asked God for a Friend

I asked God for water,
He gave me an ocean.
I asked God for a flower,
He gave me a garden.
I asked God for a tree,
He gave me a forest.
I asked God! for a friend,
He gave me YOU. --Unknown

Comments

   

Fill Another's Need

When you find someone with a need and fill it, you've become a valuable friend. You can be sure the man beaten by thieves in the Parable of the Good Samaritan became the Samaritan's loyal friend for life. Maybe your own special friend is waiting for you just around the corner. Why not peep around and see who's there?

Luke 10:33-34, "But a certain Samaritan...had compassion...and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him."

Comments

   

Support in Temptation

Adults face peer pressure, too, and there is strength in numbers.. It's easier to resist temptation if you can say, "WE won't do that." Choose friends who will stand with you rather than those that would pull you down to a lower level. George Washington said, "Associate with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company."

"Two are better than one...and if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken." Eccles. 4:9a, 12

Comments

   

Go Away From Yourself

Most of us selfishly want friends for what they can do for us, but we should want friends just as much for what we can do for them. Here is the true secret to finding a friend, from the little book "Apples of Gold":

I went out to find a friend,
And could not find one there.
I went out to be a friend,
And friends were everywhere!

Luke 6:31, "And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise."

Comments

   

Support During a Crisis

A friend is the one who comes when everyone else has gone, the one to whom we can say, "I can't take this alone, but with you, I'll get through." David in anguish cried out to his Best Friend, "Give ear to my prayer, O God; and hide not thyself from my supplication … My heart is sore pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen upon me." (Ps. 55:1,4) But by the end of the psalm, David had found the faith and strength he'd asked for. (vs. 22, 23b) Our greatest Friend will be there when all others have forsaken us. God is "a friend that sticketh closer than a brother." Proverbs 18:24

Comments

   

Lend an Ear

"The most called-upon prerequisite of a friend is an accessible ear." -- Maya Angelou

Comments

   

With a Friend Like This...

Little Tommy knew the value of friendship, even one less than perfect. When he asked to go out and play with Jimmy, his daddy answered, "Why, you don't even like Jimmy very much." After thinking a moment, Tommy replied, "Then, can I go out and fight with him?"

"Thine own friend, and thy father's friend, forsake not...better is a neighbour that is near than a brother far off." Proverbs 27:10

Comments

   

To Have a Friend...

"The only way to have a friend is to be one." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Comments

   

Make Others Happy

"Never miss an opportunity to make others happy, even if you have to let them alone to do it." -- Unknown

Comments

   

Better Off Alone

"There are some people who not only keep you from being lonely, but make you wish you were." -- Joseph Braude

Comments