The friendships you keep are the friendships that will keep you in life.
What will you do when you enter into friendship and realize you're the only one who cares about your friend? Has it ever occurred to you in a situation where it seems you give your all to a relationship and the other party of the relationship neither seem to acknowledge your efforts nor appreciate your presence?
It may be a business relationship or career relationship where you give all your best to the organization, but your employer doesn't acknowledge your contributions by paying you on time or giving you what you deserve?
It may be a marriage relationship where you commit yourself to it so much but your spouse doesn't value your commitment?
Think of being in a dating relationship where you discipline yourself so much to stay chaste until marriage but your partner does not even commit himself or herself to the relationship as much as you do?
What of being in a friendship where you are the only one who does all the calling, and seem to care so much about the friendship and the moment you stop calling and caring so much, the friendship ends?
I feel the pain of parents, guardians and mentors who invest so much into their children and wards, but after they climb the ladder of excellence, success and glory they completely forget about the people who took care of them.
These experiences could be very heartbreaking, painful and tormenting. If you go through them, it may seem as though life was just designed to be a one-sided adventure without any experience of a reciprocal relationship.
A true friendship requires two; not one.
Friendship is a relationship. The root meaning of the word RELATIONSHIP states that to constitute a relationship there has to be an object to relate with. The two or more objects coming together is what helps to constitute a relationship. And that's how friendship works.
The simplest definition of friendship is this: Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between two or more people. The key word in this definition is MUTUAL. When mutuality is absent in friendship, a real or true friendship cannot be created. A true friendship requires two; not one.
A one-sided friendship is not a real friendship. You can call it a unilateral friendship, an opportunistic friendship or a parasitic friendship. It only benefits one person and distorts the true picture of a real friendship.
For you to both be a true friend and have a true friendship, care for your friends as they care for you and learn to love them just for their own sake.
Jesus Christ concluded, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another..." (John 13:34). That means if I love you, you should also love me. It shouldn't be one-sided; true friendship is a two-way street. It works by The Law of Reciprocity.
