Better Together

ZONDERVAN Better Together Copyright © 2019 by Warren Photographic This title is also available as a Zondervan ebook.

Requests for information should be addressed to: Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546 Library of Congress Cataloging-­in-­Publication Data ISBN 978–0–310-35412-3 (HC) ISBN 978–0–310-45169-3 (eBook) Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, niv®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The “niv” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.® Scripture on page 18 is from the New King James Version®. © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.

All rights reserved.

Scripture on page 24 is from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation. © 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

See page 126 for quotation copyright information.

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—­electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—­ except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Art direction: Patti Evans Interior design: Susanna Chapman Printed in the United States of America 19 20 21 22 23 DSC 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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Introduction Close friends are people we can be our true selves with. More than just social media connections, they’re companions we can lean on when times are hard and laugh with when everything’s going well. Sometimes friends look like us and act like us, and we see life through the same spectacles. Yes, there’s a certain measure of comfort that goes with that.

It’s safe. We’re assured that we don’t think and act alone. There’s someone else in the world who gets me because they’re a lot like me.

This is not to say our differences don’t play a part in the mysterious transaction that makes a friendship; quite the contrary. Sometimes it’s our differences that intermingle to create something so uniquely original that the product that remains is truly one-­of-­a-­kind, unable to be replicated. I learn to love you for the person you are that I am not, and you reply in kind.

And this is the wonderful paradox of friendship. Our similarities might bring us to together, but our differences are the secret ingredient that forms the life-­long bond.

Life would be boring if we were all exactly the same. We’re really not so different, but our differences are what truly makes us Better Together.

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As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. —­The Book of Proverbs

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To love someone is to acknowledge the goodness of who they are. Through loving a person we

awaken their

awareness of their own innate goodness.

It is as though they cannot know how worthy they are until they look into the mirror of our love and see themselves.

—­John Gray

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