Friendship: A Valuable Commodity

Jesus placed great value on relationship. He chose to spend much of his time deepening his connection with a few significant person rather than addressing the crowed. What is more: his teaching was filledwith practical suggestions on how to befriend people and how to relate to friends.

The commandment on this topic was so important that he introduced it with an opening flag :"A new commandment I give to you ,that you love one another: even as I have loved you: that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another "( John13:34-35).

Those words are now almost 2000 years old, but their currency is demonstrated by a recent study. In his book "The Broken Heart" Dr. James  & J. Lynch shows that lonely people live significantly shorter lives than the general population. Lynch who is a specialist in psychosomatic disease, cites a wealth of statistics to demonstrate the unhealthy aspects of isolation and the magical powers of human contact.

Even viewed from a financial perspective, our friendships are our most valuable commodity. Studies at the Carnegie Institute of Technology reveal that even in such fields as engineering, about 15% of one's financial success is due to one's technical knowledge and about 85% is due to skill in human engineering to personality and the ability to lead people.

Dr. William Menninger has found that when people are discharged from their jobs in industry, social incompetence accounts for 60 to 80% of the failures. Only 20 to 40% are due to technical incompetence.

(NHRK)