I posed a question on Social Media recently:  “Why do you think it’s so difficult to find and keep true friends in our culture?”   I can only post a few of the many responses here; but there’s some interesting insight in the answers I received from all ages.  NOTE:  The question said nothing about social media, but many of the responses did.  The answers are also not offering solutions, but you can draw some conclusions from them.   Here are a few more of your responses.

WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO FIND & KEEP TRUE FRIENDS IN OUR CULTURE?   (your answers follow)

True friendship takes loving the other and authenticity.

It takes effort to get out of our own lives and into other’s. We don’t want to put out that much effort. We’re selfish and self-absorbed

Lack of commitment. True friends must commit to each other. Not that you have to be there or do for them all the time but commit to love them unconditionally, support them even when you don’t totally agree.

Lack of real relationships, which can be due to too much social media, being too busy, gossip, to name a few, but bottom line we have lost our first true love in Jesus. When we first came to know Jesus we were on fire, we couldn’t wait for the next service or any opportunity to share what He had done for us. It is like when you first begin dating, there is romance, little gifts, you could not wait till the next time when you would see each other, you spent hours talking on the phone in between or even wrote love notes. You put special effort into the relationship. Now we treat relationships as burdens and forget each person is a gift. Caller ID even helps us avoid each other. Sad but true. Well that what was on the top of my head I could come up with more reasons but I think this is enough to start.

We have to take time and make friendships a priority! It’s not all about us!

The isolation caused be electronic communication systems, break down of the family with no family communication at meal time, just to name a few.

It seems easier to dissolve a friendship rather than restore and repair. I’ve found that jealousy and pride are two of the biggest friendship killers. When you can’t say you’re sorry because your embarrassed of your actions, or you are envious of your friend and that seed of jealousy takes root, they can ruin a friendship.