Friends, In for a Penny, In for a Pound

Over my lifetime I have been blessed with some very good friends, and
before I go too far I want to make clear my definition of a 'friend' is not the
same as a Facebook Friend, and I have some good friends on FB but in
all honesty we were friends before we had to click like. In fact we didn't
have to click anything, except the desire to unconditionally be friends.

What happens though when a friend goes through hard times? If you're
anything like me, you may want to be nurturing, or you may want to try
to offer unlimited or sometimes unsolicited advice, all meant to be helpful
but serving little to no use.

I have done three things that hopefully show my hurting friend that I want
to help in any way possible.

1. I want my friend to know that I am there for him or her any time of the
night or day.
2. I am not judgmental. I may not agree with him about his choices
but they are his choices and I want to help him, but not judge him.
3. If asked, and only if I'm asked will I offer advice, then my responses
will be brief and to the point.

There are obviously other things I can do, but those are the things that
are how I can most effectively tell my friend that they are important
to me and I want them to return to their original condition, but most importantly,
what I must do, or anyone else for that matter is to be totally unconditional
in seeing my friend back to wholeness...after all, "that's what friends are for." DLJ