The Community That Slowly Rotated
But it's when many of these tiny changes in social behavior are combined—one degree added to another to another—that we may eventually begin to notice our entire sense of community has changed. Practices and priorities we once held valuable may have rotated out of the picture. And, unknowingly, we may have lost some of what we originally meant to experience along the way.
Surround Yourself With Good People
While its true that vulnerability early on can be a good thing, it shouldn’t be forced or without respect for other people’s boundaries. Know not every person is meant to listen to and speak into your wounds. But when you do find trustworthy relationships, practice sharing things within them. I love how in Brene Brown’s book Daring Greatly, her daughter describes trustworthy friends as “the friends who ask me to sit with them, even if they’ve been asked to sit at the popular kids’ table.”
Prophetic Friendship: Friends as Sacraments
...As prophets to one another, we are called to speak words that do not go from lips to ears but from heart to heart. Basically, the prophets of old and our own personal prophets today announce the Good News in this ongoing sharing of grace...We know that the resurrection has happened and that Christ lives today because we have met him in our prophets.
Am I my brother’s keeper? Why Genesis suggests we were meant to live inter-connected lives.
This is not necessarily surprising since God, by the Biblical writers admission, seemed to want humankind to feel instinctive bonds to one another. Think about how Cain's behavior and Noah's generation, for example, are portrayed as offending God's sensibilities. The fact that they broke ties of interrelationship and harmed their fellow humans grieved the heart of God. God did seem in fact believe that humans are their brother's keeper.
If we are made in God's image, and thus some likeness of God is present in each of us, perhaps God and his intentions are even more evident when a few or more God-imaged-people come together. Or to put it in familiar language, where two are three are gathered in my name, there will I be.
How Teens Make Friends: What the Research Says
Although parents are an important source of guidance and support, adolescents are trying to move toward independence. They rely on their parents for material support and stability, but are less likely to seek their parents' views on present and future issues (Douvan and Adelson 1966, p. 174). Because friendship offers equality, it is often seen as more desirable than relationships with parents in which there is a clear power structure (Youniss, 1980). During early adolescence, North American kids reduce time spent with family by 50% (Westen, 1996, p. 547).