A true friendship will stand the test of time, trials, and troubles. There's no such thing as a "fair-weather friend." As a matter of fact, you know what I have learned? I don't need friends in fair weather, I need friends in foul weather. A fair-weather friend is truly no friend at all.
A false friend is just like your shadow. As long as the sun is shining, he sticks right by you. But the minute you step into the shade, he disappears.
I was thinking about what a real friend really is, and I came across several that are worth noting:
• A friend is someone who multiplies your joys and divides your grief.
• A friend is a watch which beat true for all time, and never runs down.
• Irma Bombeck said, "A friend is some-body who won't go on a diet when you're fat."
• But this is my favorite definition: A friend is someone who will walk into your house when the whole world has just walked out.
• That is my favorite definition. Friendship lasts through thick, through thin, through hot, through cold, through good, through bad. There is a friend who "sticks" closer than a brother.
Charles Colson tells the story of how soon after being released from prison, he was the guest speaker at George Washington University. He was speaking to a very hostile crowd there in Washington, DC. Questions were being thrown at him rapid-fire, and the crowd was becoming increasingly angry.
One student stood up and referred to a vicious criticism that Henry Kissinger had leveled at Richard Nixon. Then he asked Chuck Colson this question: "Do you agree with this criticism?" Chuck Colson said as he scanned the room, he could tell every ear was listening and every eye was watching to see what he would say.
He took a deep breath, set his jaw, looked straight into the crowd and said, "We all know Mr. Nixon's negative qualities. He's been dissected in the press like nobody in history. I could tell you his good points, but I don't believe I could persuade you to accept them. But what it comes down to is, "No, I don't go along with Henry Kissinger's comments. Mr. Nixon is my friend, and I don't turn my back on my friends."
Colson said for an instant he thought the roof would cave in, and it did, but not like he expected. After a moment of silence, the students stood up and gave him a prolonged standing ovation. Because even they could appreciate loyalty to a friend.
If you want to find out who your friends really are, I can tell you very easily how to do it - just make a mistake. Somebody has said, "In prosperity our friends know us, but in adversity we know our friends."
A true friend doesn't allow others to put us down, but defends us.
