Life Together Not Likes Together

I was challenged to do an exercise at church the other day by my pastor. Write your top 5 closes friends other than your family. I found myself in an interesting situation, before writing names down I was defining friendship. I always defined my closes friends as those I spent the most time with. In this case I could only write one. The next closes would be some I see monthly for about 2 hours. I have always had a very large circle of friends and I understand life happens and changes occur, however, this exercise shed some light on a "not so good" trend I have jumped on. The truth is I spend more time scrolling through Facebook to see my friends rather than having lunch with them. I seriously calculated this if I took how much time I jump on Facebook to see everyone's post and added it together over two weeks’ time, I could have lunch with two friends for two hours (that's 20 minutes a day for 14 days on FB) c'mon don't tell me you don't average 20 minutes on FB, that includes your post about where you’re eating, the picture of your food, your comment on how good it is, and then checking to see who all liked it!!!! I never defined my closest friends by requesting for them to be a friend. They became my friend naturally by spending time together and this time together created true friendship. I could list more than 5 people I consider to be my closest friends; the problem is when I go back to my definition of a close friend I have failed to maintain what it takes to have true friendship.  When life happens, I don't want to have to friend request those that I need around me. I want them to show up. I don't want to click a little sign with a heart to express to my friends how much I care. I want them to see it in my eyes. I completely understand the social media thing and I’m not a hater I use it to. I just want to shed some light on the importance of actual human contact. Don't be deceived by the friend’s number you have at the top of your page and don’t rate your level of life by how many likes you get, because a few hours with a good friend on a regular basis will create a lifetime of memories that you won't need a screen to show you, because they will be standing right next to you. Take the challenge list your 5 friends and figure out how to take 5 hours of your time and do some life together! (not likes together)

Creating More Beauty!

Your Friend, Cheri