Pillar 2: Friendship

Relationships can be one of the most rewarding gifts and greatest challenges to our human existence. Friendship, a form of relationship, takes this concept to a much deeper level. As we choose to be vulnerable, authentic, and accountable with our friends, we should find safety and security. These are the things that make a relationship (the role we play in a person's life) a friendship.

Solomon understood the importance of navigating the challenges that can arise in friendship. Let’s take a look at a few points of wisdom he shared about it:

Walk with the wise and become wise; associate with fools and get in trouble (Proverbs 13:20).

Love prospers when a multitude of sins are forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends (Proverbs 17:9).

An offended friend is harder to win back than a fortified city. Arguments separate friends like a gate locked with bars (Proverbs 18:19).

There are “friends” who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24).

As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend (Proverbs 27:17).

Never abandon a friend—either yours or your father’s. When disaster strikes, you won’t have to ask your brother for assistance. It’s better to go to a neighbor than to a brother who lives far away (Proverbs 27:10).

At the core of Solomon's proverbs on friendship is the idea that they require intentionality and that true friendships bring great value to us when we steward them well.

Pause and Ponder: How can I become wiser in my friendships?