Leadership U. EasyGift

Academics
Humanities
Social Sciences
Sciences
Theology
Academic Integration
Faculty Offices

Departments
Current Issues
Publications
Conferences/Events
Apologetics
Ministry Tools
Bible Studies
What's New

Special Interest
Past Features
Other Sites
Help LU
About LU
Privacy Policy
Link to LU
Feedback

Navigation
Site Map
Site Index
Advanced Search
Browsing Help
LU Home


LU Updates
Receive
LU-Announce

subscribe

 
     
ConversationsResource Center

CHAPTER 10

Friends: Risks and Rewards

Five years from today you will be pretty much the same as you are today except for two things: the books you read and the people you get close to. Charles Jones

The Problem

  • Do you have a close friend? Not just someone to call for lunch, but a genuinely close friend?
  • Adult friendships are difficult to start and harder to keep.
  • Most men have a friendship deficit. We don't have anyone who is willing to just listen, to simply be a friend and listen, and not always to have a quick solution.

Friends Versus Acquaintances

  • You'd be fortunate if you had three real friends.
  • Are the men you consider friends really friends?

Too Close for Comfort

  • We sincerely want to have close friends, yet we fear letting someone get too close. We worry that if someone really got to know us, they wouldn't like us.
  • We need approval, to be accepted by another person, but we fear the opposite -- that we will be rejected.

Betrayed!

  • Few types of emotional pain sear as painfully and as deeply as that of betrayal by a friend.
  • Trust, transparency, and vulnerability are the stuff of which true friendships are constructed.

Taking the Risk

  • If you want a real friend, you will probably need to be the one who takes the initiative.
  • The price of friendship is personal vulnerability.
  • Transparency must characterize a friendship.

A Friend

  • A friend is there when you need him.
  • A friend keeps us on track.
  • A friend helps us crystallize our thoughts.
  • A friend will listen.

[Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter ]

- Email this to a friend

copyright © 1995-2008 Leadership U. All rights reserved.
Updated: 13 July 2002