Wow, I would have never imagined having my own column on the web. I am truly honored and privilege to be able to contribute to this web site. Hats off to those who put this TWR web site together, it looks great! PTL, and keep up the good work!

So why did I decide to write about friendship? Well because I truly believe that building and maintaining friendships is an important part of our growth as a person. Not only that, it's one of God's greatest blessings to us. As a child of God, He's given us the chance to live an abundant life and that includes having friendships. God's intentions for friendship is made very clear to us in the Bible. In these series of articles I would like to share some neat examples from the Bible on friendships and also a few from my own experiences. I don't claim to be the expert in friendship but I believe God has taught me the meaning of friendship in the past decade of my life. In this article, we'll look into the importance of having friends and why it's a good time now to start developing friendships. Next week I'll present the different TYPES of friendships we should have. Like the word money, "friendship" can be neutral…it can be good or it can be bad. Some friendships can be harmful and some good; and sometimes it's hard to figure out which is which. Once figuring out what type of friendships we should have, we'll look at a couple of ways of finding a good friend. I'll list out examples and practical suggestions on how you can become a good friend to someone. Then after you've made tons of friends, what are you going to do with them? Well in the final article, I'll focus on nurturing your friendship relationships. Whether you have one or one hundred close friends, I'll show some practical ways of making your friendships last. But one thing I hope is that as many of you read these articles, you'll come to realize that having friends in this life has an enormous impact not only in your life here on earth but in heaven (that I will explain in the next article).

I. Why Having Friends Makes "Cents"?
II. What Type of Friends Should I Have?
III. How Do I Make A Friend?
IV. How to Develop Your Friendship?

Did you know that the best time to start making friends is during your middle school years? Particularly at an age when you start discovering yourself, the opposite gender, and other cool things that make this world evolve, having friends seems to be a definite plus. Having friends is cool because you can share interests and do things together, you can borrow stuff from each other, and have someone pick you up when you fall down. There are tons of great reasons why having friends make our lives richer. When I was in junior high school, I met a kid who would later become my best friend not only through high school and college but also into my adulthood. Before, my concept of a friend was someone you play with at school during recess. But I never spent any time with them outside of school, none of them came to my birthday parties, nor did anyone invite me to theirs. At that time, most of my friends were my classmates. As I grew older, I started to spend more time with kids around my neighborhood. We would play video games like ATARI or COMMODORE64 together. The great thing about making friends at this age is that it's much easier and everyone has similar interests. Most important everyone has the same need of feeling accepted and being liked by one peer. I didn't discover the true meaning of friendship until later in my life but I was beginning to learn one step at a time.

2 BIG reasons why you should develop friendships in your life

1. Friendship is God's precious gift.
In the beginning when God created man, he was in fellowship with man and woman. That meant he didn't just stroll around the Garden of Eden by himself; he had company talking to man face to face. There was no obstruction of sin, no shame, and no barriers. God created man and woman so that they would be friends together with each other and with God. It was a perfect relationship until sin entered the scene. Because God has allowed friendship to exist, we as children of God should take full advantage of living out this blessing as part of the abundant life he has promised us. It is important to know that God wants you to have close relationship with Him and other people.

2. Friendship helps you grow as a person. Did you know that you could learn alot about yourself by being a friend to someone? Yes, not only you learn about the other person but also you begin to discover some of your natural tendencies such as your willingness to share and your tolerance of differences between you and your friend. But on the negative side you may encounter jealousy, envy, and competition against each other, etc. Because we are not perfect, our friendships with other people cannot be totally perfect either. But if you follow God's intentions of friendships, the blessings you'll receive from it will be enormous. There's a favorite allegorical verse in Proverbs that reminds me one of the true meanings of friendships. "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." A friend should be someone who is not afraid to tell you when you are wrong or praise you when you are right. It's a two way learning relationship such that at the end the result is beneficial. One of the greatest things I learned from my long friendship experience with my best friend is self-confidence. There were times when we challenged and compared each other (I was good in sports and he was good in math) but looking back we spent more time valuing and encouraging each other strengths. Overall as you get older your relationships with your friends does affect your character. You want to make sure your friends help you grow in a positive way. There are many more reasons why having friendships is a good thing. One thing I like to do is find out what you as the reader value the most in friendships. If you can, please fill out the poll below and tell me what you think. I also encourage you to pass this URL to your friend or friend-to-be. I pray that you have gained some insights about friendship today. If you have any questions and comments about "Does Yen Make Cents?", you can email me at adamy@bu.edu.

"Why Having Friends Make Cents" Poll (Send answers to ADAM)

1. List your three top reasons why friendship is important to you

2. What one characteristic of friendship do you value the most?
Trustworthiness
Loyalty
Kindness
Other:

3. Select three of your strongest characteristics that you can offer to another person as a friend:
Trustworthiness
Loyalty
Kindness
Generosity
Other

4. What is the most important thing you would like to receive from a friendship?

5. What famous non-fiction person would you like to make friends with and why? (This person can be alive or dead)