Friendship Series - Part I

I am going to embark a series of 3 posts about friendship. Friendship is something near and dear to my heart and I really pride myself on being a good friend to others. I also have some amazing friends I am very thankful for. I am also going to allow comments on these 3 posts - something I don't do often, but I would like your input and/or feedback. 

What has triggered me to do this is recently I went to a session at church called “Friend Me” and it was as amazing as I expected. Here was the description for the session I attended:

The Greek philosopher Aristotle was once quoted as saying, “The desire for friendship comes quickly. Friendship does not.” Wouldn’t he find it interesting to realize that maintaining friendships is still a struggle — even in the 21st century? Join us for this Women in the Workplace event focusing on practical steps to making friends and being a friend — at work, at home and every place in between. We’ll cover a lot of ground from the benefits of friendship, its biblical priority and even modern-day social connectors like Facebook and Twitter. Assistant Minister to Women Ashley Freer, a communications specialist, will chat with us about the soft spot we share: the need for friendship.

So after reading that of course I was hooked! I had to go!

Ashley Freer started off by saying that she was not a professional friend and I will do the same, I am not a professional friend, I just loved some of the things she shared and wanted to share them with yall. I am not in the business of judging (remember, God’s job ONLY) – but I do have some strong opinions about friendship I may share here and there.

*My 1st post on friendship is going to briefly talk about some interesting facts about friendship.
**My 2nd post will detail the benefits of friendship and how to work at maintaining good friendships.
***My 3rd and final post will talk about friendship within the Bible along with how social media has changed friendship.

Some interesting facts about friendship:

• Typically there are 3 types of friends – (1) sidekicks, (2) allies, (3) good girlfriends.
• The yellow rose symbolizes friendship.  (as seen above ^^^)
• Statistically most people have 2.03 close friends – not sure what that .03 is, but I find this to be generally true.
• 48% of people have 1 close friend
• 18% of people have 2 close friends
• 29% of people have 3 or more close friends
• 4% of people report they have 0 close friends – this makes me sad
• Men usually have “casual” relationships.
• Women usually have “emotionally wired” relationships.
• It has been proven that time with your friends, reduces stress levels and heart rate.

I think these are all things that we should consciously think about when we start thinking about what friendship is - how it affects us, what type of friend is this person or that person and hold them to those standards vs. higher ones or even lower ones. Truth is no one can love you or hurt you like a friend.

Post #2 coming soon!  ((my favorite of all 3 posts))