The righteous choose their friends carefully.  Proverbs 12:26a NIV

The teen movie Mean Girls became a cult classic for its depiction of high school female cruelty and cliques. The movie obviously struck a chord: We women know that we can be horrible to one another, and we’ve all experienced some degree of treachery in navigating friendships.

In her book, What Women Tell Me, Anita Lustrea described trying to find a “best friend” for much of her life. From wanting a childhood pal, to struggling through the misfit feelings of junior high and high school, even through college and into her work life, it was ‘BFF’s”–“Best Friends Forever—or maybe not.”  Finding a good friend, a safe friend, whether you’re a man or a woman, can be difficult. But important.

Lustrea gives recommendations from Christian psychologists Cloud and Townsend, who say that a safe person does three things:

1 Draws us closer to God

2 Draws us closer to others

3 Helps us become the real person God created us to be.[1]

The Bible has much to say about friendship, such as, “Two are better than one” (Ecclesiastes 4:9); “There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24); and “A friend loves at all times” (Proverbs 17:17). God made us to be in relationships, so in His promise to meet all of our needs, we know that He will also answer our need for friendship.

The Bible book of Proverbs says, “A man who has friends must himself be friendly.” (Proverb 18:24). Need a friend today?  Be a friend!

 

Resource Reading:  Proverbs 18:1-24

[1] Andrea Lustrea, What Women Tell Me: Finding Freedom from the Secrets We Keep (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010), 33.