FRIENDSHIP

​"Share your smile with the world. It's a symbol of friendship and peace." — Christie Brinkley

I heard a great comment on friendship recently: "You know you're true friends with someone when you go to their house and your wifi connects automatically!"

It's both funny and insightful! It's a sign that you've been spending a lot of time with this person—which is usually a positive indicator that you value them.

True friendships aren't automatic though. True and lasting relationships take an investment in time and heart to cultivate—through good times and not-so-good times.

A number of years ago I had a friendship that I thought was solid, but that was just because the friendship had never been tested. It's one thing to be able to count on someone through calm waters, and it's quite another to be able to count on them in tumultuous seas.

There's a relationship principle called the 100/0 Principle, and it encourages us to take 100% responsibility for our relationships and expect nothing in return. The idea is that when the other person sees that we are being so proactive in the relationship, they will return with 100% effort too. However, if they don't return with even any effort at all, then that is no matter—we didn't expect anything in return anyway! Yet it is also an indicator of the true nature of that relationship (and of their true value of it).

It’s been said that we are the sum of the people that we most associate with. In other words, our chosen social circle can have a profound effect on who we are. There are many things in life that we can’t control, but the good news is that we can control who we allow into our sphere of influence, and we can also control the effort we put into those relationships.

The Magic Word Friendship is a reminder to ask yourself:

1. Who does your wifi connect with automatically?
2. What are you doing to cultivate those relationships?
3. How have they responded?
4. When do you feel the most connected in your relationships?
5. Where do you see these connections going?