How much do you treasure friendship?

[Angellica]

Following up to the question what is friendship by JoeC, I think we'd want to ask, how much do we treasure it? I treasure it so much to the extent of digging up my long lost friends. We just rekindled the lingering embers with some one who was a close friend of mine in those days! :banana: Now she's regaining her lost glory! ;-)

[Noe]

Friends are better than anything you could ever own. i never like to give old friends up or lose friends for whatever reason. At the moment i have 2 friends who won't talk to me for some reason that i know nothing of. I am finding it hard just to leave them to overcome whatever the problem is.

[marichino_freedom]

i treasure all of my friends...but some just cant accept me the way i am, so i have to let them go.......hard as it may be, considering some i've had forever......

[AgapZoe]

Friendship is one thing I really value, I like to go deeper with everyone that happens to become my friend in this life's pilgrimage. Friends come, some stay forever, some come and go, while some come to test, alongside them, they have a bag of tests andd trials...yet they are all friends, my friends, whom I have learnt to figure out what Nature really is telling me through them...some come for a season, others for a reason, and others for both a season and a reason. Some, there seasons are shorter than others', yet they are all friends, whom I greatly appreciate throughout my lifetime...and I still value them. They say Old is gold, very true...friendship, to a higher extent, is like old wine...it gets better with time. Yet, life being as real as it is...there are some friendships that surely are TOXIC and once a lesson is learnt, once they have served there purpose/s, they are to be let go, no matter what. Life is a friendship cycle.

[Angelo]

Following up to the question what is friendship by JoeC, I think we'd want to ask, how much do we treasure it? I treasure it so much to the extent of digging up my long lost friends. We just rekindled the lingering embers with some one who was a close friend of mine in those days! :banana: Now she's regaining her lost glory! ;-)

To restore another gives happiness to oneself and is pleasing to God. May He continue to bless you and use you as light and to salten the earth.

[mad_wrapper]

i have found that friendship is one thing that is always appreciated. i have basically no message youth more than an 1 1/2 hours away, so the friends i do have i value greatly. that is one thing i dislike terribly about big churches; when you get new people in the church, unless they know someone already, it can be hard to make friends because everyone already has friends and may not be looking to include new ones. i have had that happen to me and disliked it terribly, so i try to include and be friends with everyone that i can. especially true friends. which in my humble opinion, a true friend you can call up at any time and wake them up if need be to talk or to come over and they are more than willing to help out. those are the best and to be treasured because they are few and far between.

[HotShot53]

I treasure friendship a lot, especially with very good friends... which is why I am not feeling so well now, it feels as if I've just about lost a friend :( (Don't ask...)

[AgapZoe]

I treasure friendship a lot, especially with very good friends... which is why I am not feeling so well now, it feels as if I've just about lost a friend :( (Don't ask...)

well, I wont ask....;-)

[Lyddie]

I treasure friendships a lot. I love my friends. That's why it's hard when there's misunderstanding. And it's really hard for me when my friends stop being friendly toward me without warning. :012:

It's ALSO hard when a person lives far away from her friends.:(

[Megs]

The opportunity to fellowship in an earthy realm with eternal creatures, fellow brothers and sisters bought by the blood of my Lord is a privelege and a joy. I very deeply value my friendships and will go to great lengths to secure them... I do require mutual respect, and dont encourage unhealthy relationships (those that are all give or all take)
but how much do i treasure it?
Like riches of Heaven on Earth.

my friends are my blessing.

[zeeba]

Friendships are also very important to me. I don't make friends very easily so the friends I do have are treasured. However after moving overseas I've noticed people I thought were "true" friends have never made any effort to stay in contact and that really hurts. You know the phrase "out of sight, out of mind." Sadly for some people that's the way it is! Any relationship is a two way street. So after months and months of sending letters and emails and never getting a response, for my own emotional sake I gave up. How hard is it to send a quick message "Hi! I've been busy but thanks for writing! Love hearing from you! Stay in touch!"? Apparently that alone is too much effort for some people. So I have discovered who my true friends are and for that I value them even more. True friends are such a blessing!!

[Babyruth]

I'm sorry to hear this. :( When my friend moved to Belgium (she's on here as leahmb), I certainly didn't stop emailing her. :) Maybe too much. :P It is easy to get caught up with daily life and sometimes it's a little while before I send her an email, but I value her friendship a lot! True friends are a blessing. :) I will remember you in prayer, that God will send you true friends. :) God bless you!

[zan-zan]

i do treasure friendship a lot, as others do here..i always see to it that they won't miss a lot from me, same way as i expect from them..but then, i just can't figure out that when you want to be connected with them,especially those I lost contact with and you'll just simply say "hello, how are you?" and you don't get any response, it just makes me feel quite disappointed..and sometime i thought, "have i done/ said something that hurt them?" when i didn't anyway..maybe i'll just stop thinking of what i expect from them, when it's not the way they are to me.."?"

[Megs]

i do treasure friendship a lot, as others do here..i always see to it that they won't miss a lot from me, same way as i expect from them..but then, i just can't figure out that when you want to be connected with them,especially those I lost contact with and you'll just simply say "hello, how are you?" and you don't get any response, it just makes me feel quite disappointed..and sometime i thought, "have i done/ said something that hurt them?" when i didn't anyway..maybe i'll just stop thinking of what i expect from them, when it's not the way they are to me.."?"

i confess to ignoring ''hi how are you'' txt messages/ emails. i never know what to say?? how much or how little does the person i have lost contact with want to know? if i just say'' im good, you?"
the conversation ends with their following response

if i share what the fam is up to, or what is new... do they really care?

[zan-zan]

i confess to ignoring ''hi how are you'' txt messages/ emails. i never know what to say?? how much or how little does the person i have lost contact with want to know? if i just say'' im good, you?"
the conversation ends with their following response

if i share what the fam is up to, or what is new... do they really care?



but i think that's the way the conversation would start, anyway, communication won't take effect anyhow without any feedback received... and importantly, as long as that friend also considers it meant something like "this friend misses something about me" though those were just few words to begin with..:)

[Megs]

true that!...

[zeeba]

Yeah, the conversation can't just stop at "how are you?". To show them that you are interested in their life and you do care if they're doing well you have to ask questions about their family, school, work, hobbies, etc. "How's your sister doing? I heard she graduated this summer." "Do you still like working at such and such?" "Do you still do a lot of photography?"
So it's not hard to catch up with an old friend once you get started. You just have to show you remember their interests and you're open for conversation and it takes a little effort from both sides to keep it going. It's just that a lot of people are too lazy and/or actually don't care. :( Sad.

[joris]

So it's not hard to catch up with an old friend once you get started. You just have to show you remember their interests and you're open for conversation and it takes a little effort from both sides to keep it going. It's just that a lot of people are too lazy and/or actually don't care. :( Sad.You have to know something to ask meaningful questions -- I guess, the longer the silence the harder this gets. Sure you still can ask how family is, but specific questions become harder.

And yes, it is not trivial to reach out there -- the fact that the other person is silent as well can make it harder to make a first start, which becomes worse if trying so doesn't cause a former friendship to warm up again.
(I'm kinda thinking of some chat contacts here -- many are still in my list and some even show up as online, but they never contact me and am not all that likely to keep trying as it really doesn't seems to bring something back to life; in part maybe still my bad, but yeah, am not very great at keeping contact if there doesn't show very much interest by the other person)

[leahmb]

Friendships are also very important to me. I don't make friends very easily so the friends I do have are treasured. However after moving overseas I've noticed people I thought were "true" friends have never made any effort to stay in contact and that really hurts. You know the phrase "out of sight, out of mind." Sadly for some people that's the way it is! Any relationship is a two way street. So after months and months of sending letters and emails and never getting a response, for my own emotional sake I gave up. How hard is it to send a quick message "Hi! I've been busy but thanks for writing! Love hearing from you! Stay in touch!"? Apparently that alone is too much effort for some people. So I have discovered who my true friends are and for that I value them even more. True friends are such a blessing!!

Sounds so familiar! My hubby told me before I moved that people would forget about me and I was really mad at him, but I recently admitted that he was kind of right. He said that exact phrase, "out of sight, out of mind."

I am very thankful for everyone who makes effort to keep in contact with me! (Ruth, you do an amazing job at keeping in contact!:) ) I always try to respond to any communication I get and to try to keep friendships going.

I do realize some people don't do as well with 'online communication,' so I try not to hold that against them and hope when I am in town we can pick up where we left up.

Since we're on the topic of friendships...I miss my friends from home :012: I had such a wonderful time there last month! I was crying after one party, because it was so nice and in my mind, so 'perfect' and how life 'should be'...<sigh>

[zeeba]

I try to give people the benefit of the doubt when it comes to online communication, but I think even Facebook has ruined that now. I just found out a friend of mine is pregnant. How? No, she didn't call, send me an email, message, or anything. Someone posted congratulations on her wall and she even replied with a thank you! She's the same "friend" that I see commenting all over everyone else's pictures, statues, etc, but apparently ignores mine and never replies to my messages. Somehow she can only read stuff posted by "local" people which doesn't make sense on FB because it's just as easy to talk to long distance friends on there as well. But she doesn't.

I anticipated this to happen as well, but not from people I thought I was truly "close" to. I guess I shouldn't get worked up about it, either. When I saw her in December we spent a Sunday afternoon together but it was hard to find stuff to talk about! Drifting from friends can happen to anyone, whether you're near or far away. Sometimes the only thing to do is just accept it and be thankful for the good times you once had. And you never know what might rekindle the friendship!

[Lyddie]

I try to give people the benefit of the doubt when it comes to online communication, but I think even Facebook has ruined that now. I just found out a friend of mine is pregnant. How? No, she didn't call, send me an email, message, or anything. Someone posted congratulations on her wall and she even replied with a thank you! She's the same "friend" that I see commenting all over everyone else's pictures, statues, etc, but apparently ignores mine and never replies to my messages. Somehow she can only read stuff posted by "local" people which doesn't make sense on FB because it's just as easy to talk to long distance friends on there as well. But she doesn't.

I anticipated this to happen as well, but not from people I thought I was truly "close" to. I guess I shouldn't get worked up about it, either. When I saw her in December we spent a Sunday afternoon together but it was hard to find stuff to talk about! Drifting from friends can happen to anyone, whether you're near or far away. Sometimes the only thing to do is just accept it and be thankful for the good times you once had. And you never know what might rekindle the friendship!

I'm sorry to hear about that Zeeba! I pray that you can rekindle that friendship...or, if it's not God's will, that He'll give you the grace to overcome and have compassion.