Friends you can trust and open up to don’t grow on trees—believe me, I know. The only thing worse than having no one to share with is sharing with the wrong person and later regretting it. You may have heard the euphemism, “Don’t cast your pearls before swine,” meaning, don’t share your intimate heart with the pig-headed. We’ve got to share selectively, and we can’t just open the floodgates to our deepest soul to just anyone. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t open up to anyone.
So how do we find the kinds of friends we can trust and share with on this heart level? How do we grow friendships to that level if we don’t have any right now?
The answer starts with that person you see in the mirror every morning. If we want friends, we must start by first showing ourselves friendly. We all want someone who will listen, and we can’t just grow that person in the garden or buy one at the store.
But we can start by being that kind of person for someone else. Try it today—use those two years and one mouth and listen twice as much as you talk with someone in your life. Be a listener and invest in someone the way you’d like to be listened to.
What would happen if you did this routinely and intentionally? What would happen if you grew and nurtured friendships by giving to others what you need yourself?
I think you’d harvest a crop of amazing friends who will want to give back to you what you’ve given to them. And if you invest in them, I think you’ll find you get a return on your investment that may just save you some serious therapy bills in the long run!
