Marks Of A True Friend
January 27, 2010 by Marci
My outgoing text:
Would I offend you if I didn’t mop the floors before you come over tonight? Don’t think I’m gonna have the time.
The response:
I never notice if your floors are clean or dirty.
Excellent!
We had friends over for dinner last night. Good friends. The kind of friends that walk in the front door without knocking. The kind of friends that call up and say “Can you invite us over for enchiladas this week?” As I was making the enchiladas late yesterday afternoon (after taking the kids to ice skating lessons, homeschooling, running the little one to and from preschool, laundry and doing some paperwork), it dawned on me. “My floors are kinda yucky.” At this point, I was getting tired and just wanted to sit down, so I sent the text hoping for permission to cross that off the list and just relax for a couple minutes before our friends arrived.
When people first come over to your house, you normally want to make a good first impression and have the house clean and orderly. Then, there are those friends that you have made the good impression with, ruined that impression several times over and they love you anyway. Those are your true friends. That got me thinking. What are other marks of a true friend? This is my quick list.
A true friend has your garage code
A true friend doesn’t use that code for evil purposes
A true friend will tell you if you have broccoli in your teeth
A true friend will tell you if your new hair color is bad
A true friend will tell you if you really do look fat in those jeans
A true friend will appreciate the above two statements
A true friend will take your toddler for an indefinite time when you call and say “I’ve miscarried. I need to go to the hospital.”
A true friend will appreciate and understand your facebook sarcasm
A true friend will bring their own slippers to your house
A true friend stops and prays when they receive the text “pray for me now!”
A true friend doesn’t notice or care if your house is dirty
I can count on one hand the number of friends we have that are that close to us. My husband and I treasure those relationships. Those are the friends we want around even when the chips are down. We know we can be ourselves around them and they will be there for us no matter what. And, most importantly, I don’t have to mop especially for them! I hate to mop.
Comments (6)
Love those friends – had one come over just yesterday afternoon! She called me up after her little boy had woken up from his nap and promptly said “I want to play with Owen (my eldest) at HIS house” She thought it was so cute and called me up to tell me, after which I said, “Come on over, the house is a wreck, but that would happen eventually with 4 kids running a muck!” So, she came over with her kiddos and ended up staying for dinner – totally unplanned, but we are fine rolling that way with good ‘true friends’!!
Great post! I seem at my age to be interested in cultivating relationships of this caliber and not so many superficial ones. I love that my friends don’t care what my floor looks like or the condition of my house. I love that they kick me out of my house to clean when I’m recovering from surgery and never even asked. Thanks for focusing in on what is important.
I absolutely love the list! So so true!
Love this list! Sorry to be MIA, been sick…now a bit better just in time for two b-days…ack.
oh, happy blog-anniversary!
You are so right on these…gotta find new friends maybe…or maybe I need a new attitude about the ones we already have…I think they really don’t care if my floors are dirty or not…I just care more than I should.
This post made me smile at the prospect of being/becoming friends with sweet women that have been placed in my life just recently.
Perfect!