I’m a huge advocate of social media (as you know) and how it has impacted the way brands market. I love the connections that I’ve made from using Facebook and Twitter. This blog has given me a platform to share my thoughts on faith, fatherhood and marketing. Social has expanded our reach to across the country and in some cases around the globe. I’m sure you’ve also seen the ability to reconnect with people you once thought you may have never been able to again.
However, with all of the positives I just mentioned, social has redefined the word “friend” hasn’t it? Think about this…I have 1,177 friends on Facebook. I don’t tell you that to brag, but as I look at that number, what real relationship do I have with all of those people? Yes, there are a select few that I can say I have a deep friendship with but most of the others are people that I’ve come to know professionally, people I’ve come to know through Kensington, others are childhood friends and others are those from Michigan State. Regardless, each group of people was significant for a certain period of my life but I can’t honestly say the friendship is nothing more than a casual friendship.
What I’ve learned and was reinforced this past weekend at Kensington Orion was that social media does a great job of expanding our friendships horizontally but often times causes the vertical depth of friendships to suffer. Don’t get me wrong, I have been able to establish deep and meaningful friendships with some…Gini Dietrich and Justin Brackett are 2 great examples but those were able to grow because of the personal investment we made to get to know each other not only through our online interactions but also through in person visits and conversations.
As I’ve continued to think about this over the last few days I began to look at the friendships I have with other guys around me…or lack thereof. I hope I’m not in the minority on this, but in conversations I’ve had with other guys in my circles (not a Google+ reference), many of us can only name maybe 1 guy that we feel comfortable enough sharing more than the surface level stuff with. It must be a guy thing because I know this comes much easier for women.
Why is this important?
I mention all of this because of the message from Kensington Orion this week. This past Sunday we talked about the 3 men in David’s life that…
…were committed
…were Christ like
…carried burdens
This group of men battled for each other and supported each other. I want that in my life. I also want that for the life of my sons. I want other men, other than me, to pour into my boys and teach them what having strong male figures in their lives will do for them as they grow up to become men. For me, I want a select few guys to be able to hold me accountable to my faith, to my marriage and be able to help me when I’m struggling. This verse from Proverbs states it perfectly:
As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. ~ Proverbs 27:17
Having these close relationships sharpens us, makes us better men, better husbands and better fathers.
What is my action step? To invest in the relationships around me and pray that God reveals to me the open doors of friendships that will sharpen me and to make the vertical investment.
What about you?
