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Key Bible Verse: Wounds from a friend are better than many kisses from an enemy (Proverbs 27:6). Bonus Reading: Ephesians 4:11–16

Les, you'll push yourself so hard on a project," someone recently told me, "that you also expect those around you to drive hard." Where did this guy get off telling me how I treat other people?

He had every right, because John, my friend, cares about me. And he was right. I focus in on a goal so intensely that I neglect other people's feelings in the process. We were on a second helping of spicy chicken at our favorite Chinese restaurant when he gently lowered the boom. John wasn't trying to berate or scold; he was trying to save my neck. He didn't want me to get into a sticky situation with the members of a committee I was working with.

As painful as the truth might be, good friends are obligated to speak it. This isn't a license to insult, offend, or badger. Speaking the truth in love is the goal of an honest friend. How does a friend do this? With a lot of respect. Otherwise, honesty is a lethal weapon.

Good friends deserve to know if they're hurting someone's feelings, being too aggressive, too lazy, too anything. If a friend can't hear the truth from another friend, the relationship suffers—and so does that friend.

—Les Parrott in A Good Friend

My Response: Could my friend receive a hard truth from me? Could I from him?

Thought to Apply: Genuine friendship can't exist where one of the parties is unwilling to hear the truth, and the other is equally indisposed to speak it. —Cicero

Adapted from A Good Friend (Les & Leslie Parrott, www.realrelationships.com) by permission.

Prayer for the Week

Thank you, Father, for the gift of true friends. Help me to value my friendships and keep them in good repair.

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