It’s never a good sign when you show up at a friend’s house carrying your own handkerchief.

(Kleenex isn’t what it used to be, and paper towels are too rough. ) You’ve been hurting for a while now, the kind of heartache that only hurts when you breathe. Your whole-body aches. You are broken. AGAIN.

You hold on as long as you humanly can before you knock on their door. You know, that one true friend that never shuts you down, never crushes your heart. They will speak truth, that is sometimes hard to swallow, but it’s always offered in a LOVING way.

They greet you with a warm hug, a bright smile, a cup of coffee, and they DON’T invite you to sit at their table, where you normally visit. They lead you to their own private sanctuary, where they hold your hand as you crumble into pieces. Soon, your heavy backpack of pain has slid from your shoulders and now sits on the floor beside your feet, where it belongs.

You breathe easier now, and the two of you laugh over a silly joke through all the tears and nose blowing. Its a TREASURE to have a friend like that. Someone who really sees you, understands you, believes the best IN you, and wants the best FOR you.

Suddenly, you are worried about them carrying your burden throughout their own day, and you don’t want to upset their mind or their heart.

That’s what real friendship does. You care more about the other person than yourself.

We can wrestle with anxiety and worry over enormous things and the minuscule things, but a true friend will see how you hurt, or notice you aren’t yourself, and they want to hold your hand, they pray with you, and they wrap you in the warmth of their love tightly until you feel strong enough to stand on your own again.

They don’t hurl harsh words at you; they don’t stand there with that “I told you so” smirk.

They jump down into the pit you’ve fallen into ONE MORE TIME, simply because YOU are important to them.

Sometimes the weight of our burdens or anxious thoughts is all tangled up in the fear that if we don’t find a way through our “jungle of pain,” it will swallow us alive.

A true friend shows us that we don’t need to build brick walls or keep a watchful eye for the next heartache to happen.

God’s got all that taken care of already.

We only need to love others to the best of our ability, count our MANY blessings, search for the joy and the beauty in each new day… and be grateful for a friend who truly “loveth at all times”.