What Type of Friend are You?
Find out what type of friend you are and see what power and uniqueness you bring to your friendships.
Our hope is that you will ask yourself these 3 questions, use these 2 scriptures to dig deeper, and accept 1 challenge to apply what you’ve learned.
3 Questions
#1. What type of friend are you?
From the 6 types of friends listed below, what type fits you best? When you can identify the type of friend you are, you start to see the power and uniqueness of what you have to offer to your friendships.
The Encourager: This is the cheerleader, the friend who believes in you. they see the good in you and call it out. It’s easy for them to speak hope when you’re discouraged. They see the best in life and people. This person oozes belief and support.
The Foxhole Friend: This is the good companion. This friend gets their hands dirty with you. If you have an idea, they’re all in! They will fight for you and fight beside you. This person is your dream defender. They encourage you to go for your dreams and they’ll help you along the way. They may not use words to express what you mean to them, but they’ll be right beside you and share in whatever trouble you get into.
The Challenger: This is the friend who isn’t afraid to tell you the truth. They won’t let you settle, and they will kick you in the booty if you get off track. They might not be your easiest friend, and you might have to work through conflict here and there, but they make you better every time.
The Fun One: This is the friend that brings the party. They might not have a two-hour debate with you about a theological issue, but they will make sure you laugh often. They are spontaneous and pull people together. They might even say something inappropriate that interrupts whatever bad mood you find yourself stuck in.
The Planner: This is the organized and thoughtful friend who makes sure everyone gets together, and they also make sure the bill gets split up correctly at the end of dinner. They start the meal train email and remember your birthday year after year.
The Sage: This is the friend who listens, prays, and advises. They love for you to bring them a problem. They carry godly wisdom earned through study and/or life experience. They are safe and trustworthy.
When you start to think about what you bring to a friendship, you can be a little bit more proud of the friend that you are, and you can gain a vision for the type of friend you can be.
#2. What surprised you most about your friend map?
If you're following along then you filled out the friend map in either the book or the book club guide.
Basically, this is a map of the people that you're seeing every week.
Mapping out the people that you see day in and day out seems like a simple practice, but this practice has changed many people's lives. Without a friend map, we might not realize how many people we see in a week and how many people we think we could go to coffee with. If we’re not careful, we miss the people right in front of us. Why? Because we’re looking at our phones, we’re in too much of a rush, or we’re just too busy.
Is there something that surprised you about your map?
#3. How have you not prioritized the people right in front of you?
Who are the people God has put right in front of you? Why are you not in a relationship with them? Why have you not started up a conversation to see if you have similar interests?
We can do this. Start small.
Reach out to that person you see every single week, but you’ve never spent time with.
Ask them to coffee. Before you know it, you may be getting together for more.
2 Scriptures
The scripture goes on to talk about how they were sharing things together. They were opening scriptures and praying together.
That’s how it's supposed to go. There was togetherness in meals, staying together, and doing life together. They took care of each other and each other's needs. We can't do this for the whole world, but we can do this for a few people.
So, who are these people around you? How are you doing life with them?
This is the story we're after. We're after the idea of helping to make each other better. How do we take care of each other? How do we move toward love and good deeds for each other, but also for the those that don’t know God?
We don't give up on meeting together as some are in the habit of doing because we know we need each other. We must lean on each other for us to grow, to be encouraged, to love each other and to live well together.
This is a beautiful vision of how we can do life together. If you can't do life with your biological family, then you can build one through the local church. The body of Christ means that we are each other’s brothers and sisters. We’re called to be there for each other to help make it through life, and to take care of each other.
1 Challenge
In the book or the book club guide, complete both the friend map and review the 6 types of friends
(also listed above in question #1).
Then, choose the kind of friend you are.
Next, know the names of the people in your life and start thinking about what type of friends they might be. Consider how they might fill different roles in your life.
Then, think about what type of friend you are and how you can contribute your unique and powerful attributes to a few people in your life.
Need to get caught up?
You’re not too late!
Grab your copy of Find Your People and download the free book club guide today!
