Aretha Would Agree

Being around friends is such a wonderful thing. The past week especially has been really great because I've been able to spend some good quality time with some good quality people.

I think the reason it's so great to be around people who are close friends is that you don't feel like you'll be judged for what you do or say (even if you say something stupid.) In a conversation with one of these friends, she and I discussed what makes a person eligible for a good relationship, whether a friendship or more. We determined that it comes down to two main things: trust and respect. These two characteristics combined more or less equal love. Think about it; when you love someone and they do something that seems to be bad, because you trust and respect them, you'll defend them - even to other people.

The part where relationships collapse is when one of the people does something bad enough to exceed the level of trust or respect that the other person had for them. The relationship also can be strained when one person doesn't show or have the same amount of trust and respect the other has for them.

In the ideal situations, one would make a concious effort to keep the trust and respect of the other person in the relationship. Things start falling apart when one person stops caring, puts less into the relationship and knowingly violates the trust and respect of their friend or significant other.

The point is this: love is caring more about someone else than yourself. Of course this doesn't mean denying yourself of the necessities of life in order to make someone else happy, but it does mean that mutual trust and respect causes each person to seek and be concerned for the others' well-being.

We all have friends who care about us and whom we care much about. Those are the people who I've been lucky enough to spend time with this past week.

I think we just need to start thinking about and serving others more; therein lies happiness. The scriptures tell us that "when [we] are in the service of our fellow beings, [we] are only in the service of [our] God." Let's love our God by loving our neighbor.

Who knows, maybe you'll even make a few friends along the way.

- Mike

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