Leadership Thought: You Can't Have Too Many Friends

Dear Friends,

My phone went ding. I looked down and saw a text from one of my daughter's friends who has just texted me: "I  just want you to know I will be bringing over dinner and dessert tonight." 

My daughter Rachel and her family with whom I live, are away in Vermont, and my friend knew it and wanted to be sure I was cared for. 

Then another friend's mom, who makes the best chicken soup, called me to tell me she had just left some cookies and a quart of chicken soup on our doorstep.

It's not that I can't or don't like to cook. I have always had a love for cooking, but with no longer anyone to cook for, I don't spend a lot of time at the stove, so I am always grateful when friends like this stop by to bless me with their culinary gifts.

Over the years I have been blessed to cultivate many wonderful friendships.

Every Wednesday morning for a number of years, I enjoy breakfast at seven o'clock with a couple of good friends I met many years ago.

I love being with friends. Whether going out to breakfast with church friends or socializing with high school or college friends at our summer cottage, I am always on the lookout for opportunities to be with friends.

There is no greater gift than the gift of friendship, and I am  blessed by the wealth of friends I have  made over the years. One can never possess too many friends.

Going through the loss of a loved one has been difficult, but having friends who call, write, visit, and share their gifts with me has made dealing with loss so much easier. 

I love the story about General William Westmoreland who was in Vietnam. He was reviewing a platoon of paratroopers. As he walked down the line, he asked each of them a question: "How do you like jumping, son?"

"Love it, sir!" was the first paratrooper's answer.

"The greatest experience in my life, sir," exclaimed the next paratrooper.

But when he came to the third one, the soldier's respond surprised him. 

"I hate it, sir," the young man replied.                                                                                         

"Then why do you do it?" asked Westmoreland.

"Because I want to be around the guys who love to jump." 

Solomon wrote, "Friends come and friends go, but a true friend sticks by you like family" (Proverbs 18:24, Message Bible).

There are friends and then there are 'real’ friends, the fox hole kind. They are the ones who show up on your doorstep at just the right time.  They are the kind of friends who 'stick as close as a brother.'

C.S. Lewis writes "Friendship is born at the moment one person says to another, "What, you  too?" I thought I was the only one."

How refreshing it is to find that kind of friend when you are in need, when no one knows or cares or understands what you are going through.

When you discover that kind of friend, you have found a rare treasure.

John Maxwell writes, "A true friend is someone who sees you at your worst, but never forgets your best.  is someone who thinks you are a little bit more wonderful than you really are. is someone you can talk with for hours or be with in complete silence. is as happy for your success as you are.  A real friend trusts you to say what he really means when talking to you, doesn't try to know more, act smarter, or be your constant teacher."

My mother always used to remind me that the way to have friends is to be a friend, and throughout my life I have tried to follow her advice. 

Her advice has worked, and I am so glad it has.

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom