The Circle of Friendship – Sunday, October 30, 1983
The most important task imposed by religion has always been to “love thy neighbor” and that includes love thy family. It is a charge to all mankind to be concerned about the business of human relationships. It includes developing friendships with people we feel comfortable around, those with whom we share mutual honesty and trust.
Being a friend can range from being a casual acquaintance to being someone who hears another’s deepest secrets. The relationship differs from person to person, but the bond is always there.
Why does there seem to be a shortage of friendship? One reason may be that so many are not willing to devote their energies to it. Friendship does not often appear on lists of personal goals. We simply assume it will happen. Yet, the first rule of friendship should be to assign a top priority to our relationships with others.
If we are to love our neighbors and develop meaningful human relationships, we have to take an interest in them. If we are to be a friend, we have to care about people, about what they think and feel and about their trials and successes. Friendship is a kind of circle. It cannot enclose the good points without also including the bad.
Most often, friendships stumble on the rock of inconvenience. We may have good impulses and the desire for strong relationships with others, but we find it inconvenient to invest in them. We’re willing to do generous things as long as they are personally convenient. But friendship is not always convenient. It always requires the giving of oneself.
The basic principles of human relationships include loyalty, supportiveness, frankness, the ability to keep confidences, and a sense of humor. So, it is with friendship. The Savior’s Sermon on the Mount is largely devoted to those basic principles. It offers one of the oldest and most enduring rules of human relationships: “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”1
Perhaps in the long run, that is the best definition of friendship. And the end result will be an improvement of mankind, a higher degree of cooperation between individuals, among neighbors and nations and families.
1 New Testament, Matthew 7:2
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October 30, 1983
Broadcast Number 2,828