Let us all remember that Wednesday, November 23, 2022, is the 11th annual National Friendship Day in The Bahamas. Let us all do our best to make The Bahamas a place where there is sun, sand, sea, and friendship. On Friendship Day, make it a point to be a friend and make a friend.
Say “Happy Friendship Day” to all you see. You can smile, share a warm meal, give a cool drink, help someone across the street. Surprise your neighbors by doing something special for them. It may be cutting the grass, trimming the hedge, or picking up debris around their yard. Be kind and friendly to all on that day.
Here’s a beautiful story about friendship and kindness that will touch your heart. Many decades ago, a little boy about 10 years old was standing before a shoe store on Broadway, New York, barefoot, peering through the window and shivering from the cold. A lady approached the boy and said, “My little fellow, why are you looking so earnestly in that window?”
“I was asking God to give me a pair of shoes,” was the boy’s reply. The lady took him by the hand and went into the store and asked the clerk to get half a dozen pairs of socks for the boy. She then asked if he could give her a basin of water and a towel. He quickly brought them to her. She took the little fellow to the back part of the store and, removing her gloves, knelt down, washed his little feet and dried them with a towel.
By this time, the clerk had returned with the socks. Placing a pair upon the boy’s feet, she purchased him a pair of shoes, and tying up the remaining pairs of socks, gave them to him. She patted him on the head and said, “No doubt, my little fellow, you feel more comfortable now?” As she turned to go, the astonished lad caught her by the hand and, looking up in her face, with tears in his eyes, answered the question with these words, “Are you God’s wife?”
What will a stranger say about you on Friendship Day when you show acts of kindness, respect, and friendship? I believe that if everyone would be friendly and kind, we can help reduce violence, anger, poverty, depression, and hopelessness in our country.
We all need friends. How can one attract friends? I think Dr. Alex Lickerman puts it very clearly in his article, “The True Meaning of Friendship”. He quotes from Gandhi: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
He continued, “Be the friend you want to have. We all tend to attract people into our lives whose character mirrors our own. You don’t have to make yourself into what you think others would find attractive. No matter what your areas of interest, others share them somewhere. Simply make yourself a big target. Join social clubs organized around activities you enjoy. Leverage the internet to find people of like mind. Take action.”
On National Friendship Day, let us all take action. Let that day be a symbol of a new beginning in your home and neighborhood that will cause a transformation in our country.
Let us all do our best to have a wonderful Friendship Day on Wednesday, November 23, 2022.
• Barrington Brennen is a marriage and family therapist. Send your comments or questions to question@soencouragement.org or call 242-327-1980 or visit www.soencouragement.org.
