Real Friendship: How to Test If It is Real or Not

“Who Finds a Friend, Finds a Treasure”, the saying goes…Isn’t it true? A treasure for all seasons of life! But recognizing true friendship is like testing Gold for discerning the Real from the Fake one.

It would be nice to never entertain a thought like that of testing our friendship. Actually, we are not the ones testing our friends, we would never do it, it is Life itself. The situations we face in lfe, tell us whom to trust as Real Friends.

In all simplicity, we could say that just like acids are used to recognize real gold, so are the sour moments of our life to speak volumes about the authenticity of our treasured friends. We meet so many people in the course of our life but we lose just too many of them on the trail of life. How to choose the right ones?

If there were a magic formula or rule to follow, we would be set, but no, unfortunately I do not believe it exists. I think though, that recognizing true friendship has a lot to do with gut-feelings, intuitions, instincts, whatever you like to call them.

Someone wisely said: “The One Who Takes Your Hand but Touches Your Heart, is a True Friend”. Certainly, who can really ’strike that cord’ in us, will impact our life in a profound way. If we would learn to read, recognize our intuitions, emotions and their quality we would be on a better track for just anything in life. When we dismiss them, I think, it’s when trouble sets in. When we have difficulty though to go through our feelings, emotions, still there might be some clues to help us out.

Trials, difficulties and sorrow at one point or another, will be met by each one of us in the course of our life and facing them with REAL friends and family will make a big difference. Those moments, although terrible to experience can speak volumes about our friends and teach us lessons we will never forget.

As Grace Pulpit said: “A true friend is the one who comes in when the whole world has gone out”. It’s easy to share joys with others, but only Real Friends can be there with you to share your sorrows, frustrations, to encourage you to move on and never, ever give up.

‘True friends know the song in your heart and sing it to You when your memory fails’, observed Donna Roberts. How many times we feel ‘out of tune’ with life and how kind are the friend’s words to remind us that the ‘jarring note’ is only temporary.

True friendship, remains the same challenging time and space. Many times the circumstances of life can keep us distant for a long while by our dearest friends. However, meeting them again can in an instant melt away time and space which kept us apart and make us feel again ‘two volumes of a same book’. It must be what Elisabeth Foley meant, when she said: “The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart”. Did you experience it too? Isn’t it true?

Actually the beauty of Real Friendship is essentially in its dinamicity, in its capacity of evolution. If it is static, uncapable of growth and unfoldment, it is not real friendship or a true relationship at all.

Real Friends are the ones who accept you just as you are but go any length to help you out in becoming Who You want to be and are meant to be. The Best example of True Friend I can find, in common with all of us, is Jesus Christ.

He chose us as friends, actually He even made of us His brothers and sisters, way much before we could prove us worthy of it or could accept such a great gift. Many times in life we do not live up to his expectations from us. But He never gives up on us, even if we instead, just too easily, give up on him.

He went any length for us, even though doing that has meant facing an absurd crux. His written words, his life and death example still miraculously impact and challenge our lives, thoughts and hearts in remarkable ways even thousands of years from his death.

When compared to Jesus, would we, ourselves, pass the Test of True Friends?

Sure, getting acquainted with Him more will truly teach us better than anything else what being a Real Friend can mean: Something that Wins every Test of Time and Space.

So let’s welcome him tonight, on Christmas Eve, as only a Real Friend can do.

Image via Wikipedia