Choosing Friends
While we cannot choose whom we have in our biological family, we can choose whom we call ‘friends.’ Through the years I have had many acquaintances and yet, very few friends. However, those friends are more loyal than I could ever have imagined, more encouraging than I could have ever wanted, and more truthful than I could have ever needed.
My father told me as a young child to always find friends who had as much to lose as I do, have goals that rival mine, and that are never any more needy than I. Many people like to say, ‘people come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.’ I can assure you, that if a person is only in your life for a reason or for a season, they are not a friend. Once a person’s time has come to leave your life, do not force them to stay longer than necessary; it is clearly God’s will for it to be the end of their reason or the end of their season.
Therefore, keep those around that need to be, want to be, and more importantly should be. Once a person no longer serves a purpose, or brings unnecessary drama to your life, their season has run its course and the time for their dismissal has come.
“Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.”
George Washington
N. Omar Carrington
Choosing Friends
