“Be the Friend You Need,” For the Strength of Youth, Apr. 2024.
Be the Friend You Need
You can reach out and rescue someone.
Illustration by Uran Duo
Have you ever walked into a party, dance, or other activity and searched frantically for someone you knew? You wanted them to find you and rescue you from your loneliness. On the other hand, have you ever walked into a crowded room and noticed someone else standing alone? Aren’t they also waiting for someone to rescue them?
Act, Don’t Wait
Each one of us needs a friend. That means there are other people waiting on you to be their friend.
President Henry B. Eyring, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, said, “All of us need true friends to love us, to listen to us, to show us the way, and to testify of truth to us so that we may retain the companionship of the Holy Ghost.”1 If we all need a true friend, then we need to be a true friend.
If you become the good friend that other people seek, you don’t need to wait around for them to find you. You can seek out others who need a friend and go to their rescue first!
What True Friends Do
Sometimes people think being a good friend means supporting your friends’ decisions—no matter how wrong or dangerous those decisions are. But as President Eyring taught, a good friend shows the way to keep the Holy Ghost with us.
To be a good friend, then, means that sometimes we need to gently guide our friends to the path of discipleship. Looking down on our friends and being judgmental won’t help. But if we truly love them, we will want to love them to the safety of the covenant path like the Savior did. No matter how long it takes.
Who needs you to reach out the hand of friendship to rescue them today?