"A friend is someone
who knows the song in your heart
and can sing it back to you
when you have forgotten the words".
Bernard Meltzer
We all walk though trials in our lives. Times when we feel lonely and alone. But some people seem to go through more than others. I know there are people around me whose crosses I would never want to bear. The difficulties can be different things for each of us. For some, the loss of a job or a family member. They can be illness, debt or wayward children. They can be family issues with parents or siblings. They can be the loss of one home. A true friend is one who stands by, with solid determination and love no matter what is being endured. That friend helps heal the pain with laughter, encouragement, and filling a need. They are truly a song of hope in the darkness.
This past year has been a very hard time for me. I have lost a lot. The hardest was my best friend. I have also learned a lot. I am learning all over again how to make friends that are healthy for me and that treat me well. I am learning to find love in the strangest of places. I am learning to give a little more of myself. As I learn these things, the aching grows a little less every day. There are still trials, there are still heartaches, there is still grief. But I have found goodness and mercy and hope in the eyes of my new friends.
“And again, verily I say unto you, my friends … —How can we help a friend? An Arabian proverb helps us answer: “A friend is one to whom one may pour out all the contents of one’s heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.”
“Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
“Whatsoever ye ask the Father in my name it shall be given unto you, that is expedient for you.” (D&C 88:62–64.)
Yes, a friend is a person who is willing to take me the way I am but who is willing and able to leave me better than he found me.
I feel so blessed to have friends like this. In fact just today I talked on the phone with a dear friend of mind. We haven't actually talked together for a very long time. It was so wonderful.
ReplyDeleteIt's always lovely to find new friends enjoy those moments.
Blessings and hugs!
This is so beautiful! :) And so true! My dearest most cherished and treasured friends are those who I love for leaving me better than they found me. Sometimes it happens because they serve me in some way - even if simply by example. Other times it happens because they allow me to serve them.
ReplyDeleteLove you...
Corine :D