If you’ve ever had at least one good friend, you know the value of friendship.

 

Defining Friends

 

If you need your fingers and toes

to count your closest friends,

Then maybe your definition of one

is broad, from end to end.

 

For closest friends come sparingly

as through this life you pass,

Your most dear friends have qualities

that put them in another class.

If a friend once was, but where is she when…

Then that’s not a friend on whom you can depend.

Or if a friend sees your faults and quickly turns from you,

Then that’s a “friend” who failed to ask,

“What would Jesus do?”

 

Enough! Enough! – To talk about what a friend is not,

Just focus on those precious traits that really mean a lot.

 

When you think of her, she’s thinking of you…

be very sure of this.

No envy, strife, or guilt is there…

it’s not worth the fuss.

For her company, you’d miss.

 

The road to friendship isn’t one way,

There’s care and compassion to and fro,

And there’s no toll to pay.

 

The road is big and wide enough for other friendships too,

No jealousy is allowed to cross between the two.

 

A friend knows what you’re thinking,

it seems she reads your mind!

But gives her ear to hear your thoughts,

and dear, sweet time.

 

Happy when you’re happy, sad when you’re sad.

A Christian friend intercedes for you

when things look really bad.

 

Distance doesn’t separate

the connection between your lives,

For when you reunite,

it’s as if she’d been there all the time.

A true friend is like a home without any walls,

Only doors through which to walk.

That friend’s many windows give light to the soul,

And help you find refuge from life’s greatest calls.

 

It doesn’t take much effort when friendship first sparks,

But it’s a pleasant energy that starts the fire

and keeps it warm

For years and years to come.

 

For Dear Friends, by Mel Ann Sullivan