When You Go Looking

"If you go looking for a friend, you're going to find they're scarce.  If you go out to be a friend, 

you'll find them everywhere."  

Zig Zigler

This world is such a serious place most of the time.  Things happen and we feel alone.  I know that I have.  It can be hard for me to start over and make new friends.  It is always a little bit of a reach.  What if they don't like me?  What if they don't want to know me?  What if I share too much? Or too little.
We each hurt at times during our lives and having a friend can really ease the pain.  I have discovered, especially living in a small town, that when I really look for friends, I just can't seem to find them.  There is no one there who has time for me.  It is almost like we are living on different planets instead of just down the street.  But this year, when I really needed friends, there they were.  People I never had thought to reach out to, just opened their arms and reached out to me.  I am learning that to have friends, it is not enough to look for them, you really have to seek to be one first.
I am making new friends every day.  As a strange matter of fact, I think I have more friends now than I have ever had.  These ones have walked into the fire for me and brought me back out.  They have staying power.  So, my message is, don't despair.  If you don't have friends, go out and serve.  Develop an interest, find a place to help, find something that you like to do, and they will come.  They will see that you are worth knowing and worth loving.  They will make a difference in your life just as you will make a difference in their's.  And that is a beautiful gift indeed.   

“Friendship is born at that moment 

when one person says to another: 

"What! You too? 

I thought I was the only one.” 

~C. S. Lewis~