A friend LOVES at ALL times…

Proverbs 17: 17

If you have ever been through a deep “valley” in your life, you know those few friends who were down in the dark pit with you, walking along side of you, lifting you up, bolstering your spirits, crying with you, praying with you, getting “dirty” with you. These are the type of friends who truly love you for who you are, not for what you have to offer them.

These friends love you even when you are un~lovely. They arrive on the scene and embrace you with genuine compassion when your face is smeared with mascara from flowing tears. They look beyond your appearance and love you for who you are inside…the kind of friends who love you with blemishes and imperfections, with dark circles under your eyes from sleepless nights, with wrinkles from worry, without makeup, with grey hair, …without hair, or with scars from life’s battles.

Even when true friends can’t be physically present, their presence is felt in your life. From hundreds of miles away, they send “cyber-hugs” to your inbox with emails, texts or messaging. They send notes and cards to your mailbox which miraculously arrive at just the moment when you need a boost the most. They send prayers to heaven in your behalf. In their absence, their words are like comforting embraces.

This type of loyalty is the greatest evidence of genuine friendship. These loyal friends are there to help during periods of extreme distress and personal struggle. They know exactly what to say (or not say) in times of heartache. They even know when silence in the only appropriate thing to “say” by simply allowing their physical presence to speak the words you need to “hear.” They show the type of love that “always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” Their brand of love “never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13: 7 – 8 NIV) Their love serves as a parachute or safety net when we are falling.  They cushion the blows when we are blindsided by circumstances.  They are not only around in the good times, when the relationship is beneficial to them, but they also stick close when the going gets tough.

Be thankful for your true friends who love at all times.
Consider yourself blessed to have these people in your life. The very presence of these types of friends in our lives makes us better people. They are rare and priceless treasures.

I’m thankful for my precious friends who show this kind of love, and I hope that I’m the type of friend who shows this form of love in return. Thanks to each one of you for living this example in my life! You are all like golden threads woven into the tapestry of my life, and I wouldn’t be who I am today without you!

In good times and bad times;

In happy times and sad times;

In prosperity and poverty;

In health and in sickness;

Through laughter and tears;

In younger days and golden years;

During births and deaths;

Through success and failure;

In triumph and tragedy ~

Thank you, my dear friends, for your gift of true friendship!

LOVE at all times ~ cbcooksey