The Affectionate Friend

The first thing I'm going to mention about friendship is showing affection.
A key aspect of a strong friendship is affection, and when I talk about this I'm not talking of the affection of the world; that makes you feel guilty, burdened when you don't see them, talking about how much you miss them because you never see them and implying its their fault, seeks for yourself to gain,etc. This is selfish, and not the way of God.

However, when you are a friend that shows affection, the last thing you seek to do is to make the other person feel bad. On the contrary, you want to protect your friend and show understanding...
For example, you are going through a hard time. You have a lot to deal with at the moment, and you know that if you tell your friend it will take their attention away from what they are doing or dealing with. You really need a friend, someone to just express yourself too but you know the effect it will have on them if you do. so what do you do? If you love, you will protect by not unloading all your problems on them, trying to be the best friend you can be to them without burdening them with your problems and causing them to loose focus. This is being a real friend and showing the true love and affection. At the time they might not know a thing, how hard it is for you to not speak about it but you do and so does God!
Just one small action like that today can help your friendship in the long run!

There might be days when your friend had an absolute awful day! Everything went wrong and when you see them, they lash out and take it out on you even though you've done nothing wrong! Well you have two options:
1. Shout back and remind them you've done nothing wrong and they shouldn't be taking it out on you
or..
2. Without shouting or releasing any bad feeling just try your best to help them and then leave them to calm down on their own, without making things worse, but calming down the situation.

The second one brings you and your friend more profit, and there's thousands of examples I can use but I'm sure we all get the drift!

So think about it, have you been showing your friend affection? And if you haven't, it's never too late!