I know a girl who is very anxious to have a host of friends. She will wheedle and coax her companions, and make them many presents. She runs after them, and gets up nice parties for them. When she sees a group of them, she presses her way in. She is always asking them to play with her and study with her. She is interfering in all their plans, offended if omitted from any party, and jealous if any girl she wishes to make her friend has any friend but herself.
And yet, so selfish is she about it all, and so little does she understand how to make friends, that the other girls dislike her and run away from her. They even make fun of her, and speak of her as impudent and forward. Besides, they call her jealous and mean-spirited, and yet they are careful and considerate of her feelings, and try to keep her from knowing what they think of her.
I know another girl who does not even think whether she has many friends or not. This girl, to tell the truth about it, hardly uses the word friend at all, except in speaking and thinking about her one great Friend, who is Jesus her Savior. In everything she is trying to please him. When he tells her, as he often does, to help this girl who needs help, she gives the aid quickly and gladly. When he asks her to give some little present to a girl who has few things of the sort, when he asks her to amuse some one who is downcast, or walk with some one who is lonely, or study with some one who is stupid, she obeys, because she wants to. She is glad to have her friends have a host of friends also. She enjoys their pretty things as much as if they were her own. She is not a beautiful girl, but her face is so bright that every one thinks her beautiful. She is always ready to join with others in sport and work, and yet never sulks when she is left alone. She has her one great Friend, you see, and so she is never really alone.
And so every one loves her, and every one is her friend. They love her for the Christ in her, and for herself. She is always in demand, and is admired everywhere she goes.
In which way, boys and girls, will you seek to make friends?