True friendship is one of the greatest blessings, and deepest needs, in our world today. We need each other. In fact, God wants us to need each other. He didn’t send us here to be alone.[1] This life was designed as a place where we would help and support each other, confide in and trust each other—where we would find and be true friends.
It’s almost as if we were built for friendship. Friends enrich our lives not only socially and emotionally, but also physically. The Wall Street Journal recently reported on “eight decades of research from Harvard University,” showing “that close relationships are the most critical component of health, happiness and longevity, more so than exercise and a good diet.”[2]
To paraphrase the Apostle Paul, true friends are kind, they don’t envy one another, they seek each other’s welfare, they are not easily provoked, they don’t think evil of one another, and they never fail to extend loyalty and love.[3] That may seem like an unreachable standard, but that’s part of the miracle of true friends—they help each other to be better and to do better.
We each have the capacity to be that kind of friend. As Ralph Waldo Emerson observed, “The only way to have a friend, is to be one.”[4] Being sincere and interested in others opens the door to friendship. Listening and caring, finding common ground, and being trustworthy keep the door of friendship open. Then, no matter what challenges we face, true friends walk the distance with us. As we read in Proverbs, “A friend loveth at all times” (Proverbs 17:17).
The greatest example of true friendship was given to us 2,000 years ago. Shortly before His Crucifixion, Jesus Christ taught His disciples: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends” (John 15:13–14). We lay down our lives, in a sense, anytime we sacrifice our selfish interests to help a friend in need. We love as Jesus loved, care as He cared, and, in so doing, we build treasured friendships.
[1] See Genesis 2:18.
[2] Julie Jargon, “They Found a Radical Cure for Loneliness: The Phone Call,” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 18, 2023, wsj.com.
[3] See 1 Corinthians 13:4–8.
[4] Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Friendship,” Essays: First Series (1841), 176.
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April 16, 2023 –
Broadcast Number 4,883
The Tabernacle Choir
Orchestra at Temple Square
BYU-Idaho Collegiate Singers
Conductor
Mack Wilberg
Organist
Andrew Unsworth
Host
Lloyd Newell
All Creatures of Our God and King
German hymn tune; Arr. Mack Wilberg
I Feel My Savior’s Love
K. Newell Dayley; Arr. Sam Cardon
Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
Johann Sebastian Bach; Arr. Andrew Unsworth
Hark, All Ye Nations!
George F. Root; Arr. Mack Wilberg
Lord, I Would Follow Thee
K. Newell Dayley
May We Be More like Thee
Mack Wilberg
Press Forward, Saints
Vanja Y. Watkins; Arr. Mack Wilberg