Who is a true friend?

How can we find true friendship in this often phony, temporary world? Friendship involves recognition or familiarity with another’s personality. Friends often share likes and dislikes, interests, pursuits and passion.

How can we recognize potential friendship? Signs include a mutual desire for companionship and perhaps a common bond of some kind.

Beyond that, genuine friendship involves a shared sense of caring and concern, a desire to see one another grow and develop, and a hope for each other to succeed in all aspects of life. True friendship involves action: doing something for someone while expecting nothing in return; sharing thoughts and feelings without fear of judgment or negative criticism.

True friendship involves relationship. Those mutual attributes we mentioned above become the foundation on which recognition transpires into relationship. Many people say, “Oh, he’s a good friend of mine,” yet they never take time to spend time with that “good friend.” Friendship takes time: time to get to know each other, time to build shared memories, time to invest in each other’s growth.

Trust is essential in true friendship. We all need someone we can share our lives, thoughts, feelings and frustrations with. We need to be able to confide our deepest secrets in someone, without worrying that those secrets will end up on the Internet the next second!

Failing to be trustworthy with those intimate secrets can destroy a friendship in a hurry. Faithfulness and loyalty are keys to true friendship. Without them, we often feel betrayed, left out and lonely. In true friendship, there is no backbiting, no negative thoughts, no turning away.

True friendship requires certain accountability factors. Real friends encourage one another and forgive one another where there has been an offense. Genuine friendship supports during times of struggle. Friends are dependable. In true friendship, unconditional love develops. We love our friends no matter what and we always want the best for our friends.

The very first sign of a very good friend, not necessarily a true friend is that we are not worried about courtesies. You will call your friend at any hour and talk without any thought of time in your mind. Similarly, whenever you need support, you will call a very good friend and ask him/her to help you out. They expect the same from you. Another important trait of such relations is that there would be no worried about exposing one another. We speak about everything in our mind without worrying about what our friends will think. We are sure that they will take our talk in the spirit it was made. We are unguarded and open with friends in our talk.

A true friend is a little more than a very good friend. A true friend will support you even if it hurts his/her own interest. A true friend will understand your motives and needs and will be with you without any analysis or criticism. A true friend will come forward to help without any request and be with us in need without showing it or expecting anything in return. With a true friend, you can be sure that you will get help to the extent possible by him/her. Nothing will remain unturned. A mother is a true friend of her children. If we share such relations with an adult we can say that we are true friends.

A true friend makes no excuses of having work or appointments or anything but will be with you whenever you need him/her. In your hour of desperation, a true friend will support you even if the whole world opposes you. A true friend is not an opportunist. A true friend means to have someone who is like mother, as I said earlier.

A true friend is always there in our time of needs and sees your problem as theirs. Someone once said that ‘a good friend can bail you out from jail but a true friend will be there with you in jail and saying ‘we messed it up this time’”

A true friend is always there for you no matter the circumstances. True friendship stands the test of time against tribe, religion, culture and social status. True friendship knows no bounds.