Throughout the month of August, the Fantastic Friday posts have been about improving our friendships. This week's post deals with helping friends. I think most of us have been in a situation where a friend has called upon us for help. Friends ask for all kinds of help: money, babysitting, a place to live, hook up for a job, moving or any of a million other things. Friendship is made up of two people helping each other through all kinds of situations.Friends must be able to ask for help from one another and to help one another. As in most things, help in a friendship is a two way street. A friendship will not work if one person is always doing all the giving of the help and never doing the receiving of the help. An imbalance in the help scale will lead to resentment. Most of us will drop everything and help a friend in need when the situation calls for it. The problem is that many of us do not allow our friends to help us when we are in need.
A few years ago I had a friend who wanted to help me by giving me some things. I did not want to accept them because I did not want to burden my friend. However, my friend wanted to do me a kindness and give me the gift. I was going to refuse her gift until my husband stopped me. He explained that sometimes, it makes a person feel really good to do something nice for someone else. He told me by refusing to let her help me I was denying her the chance to feel good and wasn't being a good friend.
One of the things that makes friendships special is reciprocity. This means friendship is made of give and take. One of the best things we can do to help a friendship grow and thrive is help and be helped by our friends. Mutual aid and comfort is a beautiful thing. So, the question for you this Fantastic Friday is what can you do today to help a friend?
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