We all want to have friends. Good friends. Proverbs 27:9(MSG) says, “…a sweet friendship refreshes the soul.” It sure does. Good friends are sometimes hard to find, though. We can not control the way other people are, but we do have control over the way we are. So, I think we should focus more on being the best friends that we can be and less on wishing/hoping for someone else to be a good friend to us.
Here are just a few ideas on way you can be a better friend to your friends.
1. Offer to babysit her kids so she can have some time to herself. And don’t say, ‘hey, let me know when you need me to babysit’, because she probably won’t ever, if it’s to do something for herself. Us women, we like to think we got this. We don’t need help. But, boy is it nice when we get it. So you gotta be persistent. If you know your friend is planning to go shopping, tell her to drop her kids off at your place, so she can relax while she shops. Or if she wants to do a clean out in her house, tell her to bring her kids to your place, or go get them yourself and take them to the park so she can have a few free hours to clean or take a bath(I consider that productive).
2. Bring her flowers when she’s sick. All of us have been there. Being sick sucks. If you find out your friend isn’t feeling good, surprise her with some flowers and maybe even some soup or cough drops or something. You don’t even have to stay at her place and hang out(if you’re afraid of the cooties), just drop by. I guarantee you, she will be in a much better mood when you do.
3. Text her some words of encouragement for the day. Us women, are so hard on ourselves and very often we tend to feel as if we’re not good enough. We feel like bad mothers, we wonder if we’ll ever have it together, we stress out at work, we feel like failures, the list goes on. So text your friend some kind words and brighten up her day a little. Tell her she’s a great mom. Wish her a great day. Send her a quote that will reassure her that she is loved, cherished, needed, is not alone, etc. We all need a little reminder sometimes.
4. Listen. Before you jump in to tell her about your problems ask her how she’s doing. It’s nice to be able to vent to someone about some things you’re going through, but you don’t want to be that friend that’s always just talking about herself. Everyone loves a good listener, so let her talk first. Then when she’s done, she’ll ask you how YOU’RE doing. There might be occasions where you run out of time(mom life) and never get to you talking about your issues, and that’s ok. You will at least walk away with knowing you made someone else feel better.
5. Go on a date with her. Don’t just wait for a good time for it to happen. Make the time. Set a date and time and put it in your calendar and treat it like an appointment. And if something comes up and you can’t make it, reschedule it! Don’t just cancel. It’s makes it look like you don’t really care and that time with your friend is not important to you.
There’s many more ways I can think of, but maybe for another post. What are some of your ideas to be a better friend? Share them in the comments below, I’d love to hear them.
(P.S. I’ve had this post written for a while now, but haven’t posted it because I didn’t have the perfect picture to go with all the ideas. Decided to just stop trying to be a perfectionist and post what I have. I also learned that I don’t take a lot of pictures with my friends! Gotta work on that 😜).
love this post 🥰