Living After the Manner of Happiness: Friends

Back in March I started a blog series called "Living After the Manner of Happiness."  When this series is finished, there will be 12 different posts that talk about ways we can each experience more happiness in our lives.  These 12 ideas are taken from a talk given by President Ezra Taft Benson called "Do Not Despair."

So far I have written about repentance, prayer, service, work, health, reading, blessing, and fasting, and my next topic is friends.

In President Benson's talk I mentioned above he said this about friends:

"The fellowship of true friends who can hear you out, share your joys, help carry your burdens, and correctly counsel you is priceless. ...Ideally, your family ought to be your closest friends. Most important, we should seek to become the friend of our Father in heaven and our brother Jesus the Christ.  What a boon to be in the company of those who edify you."

I feel so incredibly blessed to have the friends that I do.  In my moments of discouragement or in those times I'm feeling depressed, it has been my friends and family who have lifted my spirits.  My parents and my brothers and sisters are my closest friends and biggest supporters. 

 

I am beyond grateful for the friends I had growing up in Virginia.  The friends I made at BYU mean the world to me.  And I absolutely treasure and cherish the friendships I have made as I have served my mission here in Tennessee and Kentucky.

I can't help but think of this quote by Elder Neal A. Maxwell when I think about each one of my friends:  "One of the reasons we love each other in the kingdom is that our friendships are not friendships of initiation at all but are, instead, friendships of resumption!" 

My life has been filled with these "friendships of resumption" and it is so clear to me that our Heavenly Father puts us in each others' lives so that we can experience joy and happiness together, and help each other along the path that leads to eternal life with our Heavenly Father.