Variety In Friendships

Variety in Friendships

All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.

“I’m going to Fred’s again this Friday night if you don’t mind,” Kyle said after dinner one week.

“Of course not,” I replied. I’ve gotten used to his frequent Friday nights with his good friend Fred, whom he’s known since childhood. We’ve learned over the years that it’s important for each of us to cultivate friendships beyond just each other. Kyle is my best friend, but he also needs male friends who listen to and encourage him in life, and I support him in that. Kyle, in turn, supports the time I spend cultivating friendships with encouraging women. My girlfriends will say things to me and respond in ways that Kyle never would think of. It’s not that one type of friendship is any better than the other; both are valuable in different ways.

Spouses are great friends, but they should not be our only friends. We all need a community of people around us. I recently heard a speaker say that we need all kinds of friends with different personalities and qualities to fill our lives—we need those who’ll make us laugh, others who’ll listen to us cry, someone who’s adventurous, and another who challenges us. And when we have this, it creates a beautiful network where everyone supports each other with their strengths and giftings.

Have you tried to get all that you need from only one relationship? No one person is meant to fill our every need. I love the picture painted in Scripture of Christ’s body being made up of all of us collectively together. No one operates alone—we need the unity found in all the unique ways that we were made to come together to live out our faith. Community with others through friendship is one of the greatest ways we show the world we are followers of Jesus and a part of his body.

— Kendra

— Today’s Act of Friendship —

Support your spouse or close friends by encouraging them to continue to develop close friendships beyond your own.