TRUE FRIENDSHIP
Walking shoulder to shoulder
By Vaughan Roberts
10 Publishing. 96 pages. £4.99
ISBN 978 1 909 611 320
Do you consider yourself a good friend? Do you find it easy to make friends? Do you struggle with transitioning your friendships from superficial to deep? Would your friends see Christ reflected in your treatment of them?
This straightforward, short book helps us consider what true friendship is, to evaluate our friendships and to make us better friends to those around us. The six chapters look at true friendship being crucial, close, constant, candid, careful and Christ-centered. We are created by God to need friendship but, sadly, loneliness is widespread, even in the church. We can be the solution to this problem if we learn to reflect Christ in our friendships and in doing so offer the deep, quality relationship to others that we all need.
This is not the type of book I would have thought to buy for myself. I guess I have considered my self someone who is quite good at ‘doing’ friendship. However, I was quickly challenged. How many friends would I make great sacrifices for if they were really in trouble, and how many would make such sacrifices for me? When a friend naturally leaves my inner circle, do I work to make sure my inner circle does not get empty? Do I put as much work as I should into my old friendships? Am I aware of the inner struggles of my close friends? Have I allowed marriage to replace key friendships? Do my friends feel loved by me?
This book provided me with a long-needed friendship health check-up! Moreover, it presented many great practical tips on how to grow in this important area of our lives. In addition this book, from start to finish, brought me back to the gospel in offering a reminder of how our relational God offers us the ultimate true friendship through Christ.
