Truth in Love

"A friend is one who can tell you the truth in love." What kind of friend are you Dear Reader? What kind of friends do you have? What kind do you want in your life? Do you like the truth or would you rather shy away from the bright light of exposure it casts into your darkened heart? When love is in relationship, might I suggest that truth must play an integral, essential role? Without truth, there is pandering, hiding, withholding and accommodating the not said things, the unspoken somethings that are forbidden entrance into what could be magnificent sharing. The intimacy that comes with truth telling lends to the seedling that sprouts from a love bud. Or perhaps it is the other way around, Dear Reader? Truth telling leads to intimacy and from there, true love begins and grows into friendship. These ways, at least as far as my experience has taught me, are how friendships develop. This isn't really what we are talking about though, is it? This is a touchy subject, this truth telling business. The first line of this piece of writing has a determining factor within it, that a friend has an ability to speak truth for the sake of love. Kind of like, I have an observation about what I see going on in your life and because I love you, I must speak the truth. Have you been here, had this experience Dear Reader, on one or the other side of the friendship equation of speaking the truth in love? It is a heart rate accelerator, is it not? There is a lot at risk in the truth telling. How will it be received? Will friendship dissolve? Will there be accusations, push back, denial, resentment, anger...appreciation, gratitude? What will the outcome be and how will it impact the trust and future of the friendship? There is courage in the truth telling and there is courage in the truth hearing and when there is love, reciprocal love, relationship remains and is fortified. You will give what you get and in love, love more. So this brings us full circle, to the kind of relationships you have, want to have, the people in your life that you consider to be friends. Is there truth in love, spoken between you? Can you be trusted to love them so much that to not speak the truth would be an injustice to them and to you? In other words, does it behoove you, at your peril to speak truth, no matter the outcome, to speak anyway, for the sake of love of other? There is One who spoke truth in love, knowing that the love might not be returned...John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for his friends." Love is truly boundless and in friendship, it is the greatest gift of all.