I just got back from speaking at a women’s weekend retreat which had as its theme: Faithful Friend. As I finalized my notes for the segment, two definitions of ‘friend’ seemed to stand out above the rest…

-A friend is someone you go through life with.
-A friend is someone who has your tears in their eyes.

These definitions describe the deeper levels of friendship we experience with our close friends, our faithful friends, our best friend, …levels of loyalty and empathy.

As in all relationships, there are several levels of friendship:

-the friendly - ‘how are you?’
-the caring - ‘how are you really doing?’
-the love-in-action - ‘how can I help?’

As I interviewed the speakers at the retreat in our WOMANTalk Live! segment, one of the questions I asked was, “What did it mean to you to have a faithful friend walk with you through the difficult times in your life?” Sad to say, not every woman could say they had such a friend.

There’s a great need for genuine friendship today. In our ‘it’s all about me’ 21st century friendship often translates into ‘who is my friend’ instead of than how can I be a friend?