STOP AND THINK – [I] always felt that the great high privilege, relief, and comfort of friendship were that one had to explain nothing. (Katherine Mansfield, 20th century fiction writer)

In our world of hustle and bustle, we are often too busy to have a real friend—someone we can spend time with without an agenda. But when you do have such a friend, you can say what you want, or say nothing at all, simply listening or spending quiet moments together. A good friend trusts you, listens to you, and doesn’t demand explanations.

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity, … [and] there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. (Proverbs 17:17; 18:24)