We Delight In Friends!
"Ointment and perfume delight the heart,
and the sweetness of a man’s friend
gives delight by hearty counsel."
Proverbs 27:9
In November 2009, the New Oxford American
Dictionary
announced its word of the year was
“unfriend.” A verb, its
definition is: “To remove someone as a
‘friend’ on a social
media site such as Facebook.” The word
“friend” appears
more than fifty times in the Bible,
however, nowhere does
“unfriend” appear. This is a
twenty-first century invention.
When Facebook introduced the notion of
“friending,” it's
users piled
on to see how many friends they could attract.
A vast majority of those people
were not friends at all but
pawns in a quest for status and popularity. This caused
everyone to think afresh about what a friend is.
It’s a given that we need good friends for their positive
benefit in our life. Just as perfume delights in the heart,
Proverbs explains, true friends delight the heart by their
loyalty and wisdom. And just as the scent of a perfume
is available to all who are near, so friendship should
be
available to all, especially to those who lack the comfort
of closeness with others.
Do you know someone who needs a good friend?
Consider how you might share your wisdom and
loyalty with that person and delight their heart.
"Friendship flourishes at
the fountain of forgiveness."
William A. Ward
