What would it be like if you took a good hard look and evaluated your group of friends and family?\u00a0 List them.\u00a0 Now ask yourself these questions. . .<\/p>\n
Which ones would go out of their way to see you?\u00a0 Would they run to you, if you were in trouble?\u00a0 Sit with you while you hurt? Which friends would seek you out, if you weren\u2019t pursuing them?\u00a0 Do they know intimate details of your life?\u00a0 Do you feel you can really let them know you? \u00a0Which friends would tell you the truth and challenge you if they saw you running off course?\u00a0 Do your friends support and encourage the passions in your life?\u00a0 Does what matters to you, matter to them?\u00a0 Can the friendship withstand some conflict?\u00a0 Which friends would forgive you and accept you even when you do something stupid?\u00a0 Would your friends open their doors to you, if you were in need?\u00a0 What friends would willingly accept you back when you\u2019ve been distant?\u00a0 And which friends would urge you to live more than just an average existence?<\/p>\n
I believe that in order to live a happy, healthy, meaningful life, we need the love, support, and acceptance that only our family and friends can offer.\u00a0 Yet many of us live a very lonely and empty existence.\u00a0 We may have 500 Facebook friends, but how many of them would fit the bill as I\u2019ve described here?<\/p>\n
Every last one of us deeply longs to be loved and to be accepted.\u00a0 To get those things, we need other people.\u00a0 That is how God made us \u2013 hard-wired at our core.\u00a0 We are relational beings and we can\u2019t reach our potential without others.<\/p>\n
If you don\u2019t have those people in your life, may I suggest that maybe it is not because you\u2019ve chosen bad friends, but that you don\u2019t know how to put yourself out there to find out who your real friends are?\u00a0 Finding friends is not about searching the world over, it is about investing yourself<\/strong><\/em> \u2013 wholly, vulnerably, completely.\u00a0 A friend can\u2019t give these things to you when they don\u2019t even know you have a need.\u00a0 If you are not being authentic with the people in your life, how can they offer you the love, support, and acceptance that you need.\u00a0 And when friends don\u2019t measure up, do you give up?\u00a0 Or do you keep putting yourself out there, determined to find the base of people that will be there for you?<\/p>\n I challenge you to list the people in your life and evaluate which ones fit the bill.\u00a0 Next, I challenge you to look at how much of yourself you have invested in those people so that they can<\/strong> <\/em>offer you love, support and acceptance.\u00a0 If you are married, I challenge you to talk with your spouse in terms of friendship as well.\u00a0 Again, look at how much of yourself you have revealed in the relationship in order for your spouse to be able to be that safe place for you.\u00a0 And how good of a friend have you been to your spouse?<\/p>\n Having people in your life who truly know you and can have an authentic relationship with you is vitally important for a healthy life.\u00a0 How do your friends rate?\u00a0 Your spouse?\u00a0 How do you measure up as a friend?\u00a0 And are you investing enough of yourself to have those kind of relationships?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What would it be like if you took a good hard look and evaluated your group of friends and family?\u00a0 List them.\u00a0 Now ask yourself these questions. . . Which ones would go out of their way to see you?\u00a0 Would they run to you, if you were in trouble?\u00a0 Sit with you while you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marriage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healingheartsofindy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healingheartsofindy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healingheartsofindy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healingheartsofindy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healingheartsofindy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3673"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/healingheartsofindy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4299,"href":"https:\/\/healingheartsofindy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3673\/revisions\/4299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healingheartsofindy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healingheartsofindy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healingheartsofindy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}