TheDiscipleMD

When most people hear the term “Best Friend,” they imagine two people who have been friends for a lifetime. Together since childhood, the two, usually of the same sex, have bonded and forged a relationship that has lasted through the good times and the bad. And for many, the ‘best friend’ is just that. And really, how wonderful it is that two people can describe each other as “best!”

Best friends really can talk about anything and should be able to say anything to one another honestly, without the other taking offense. It is the kind of relationship to envy. But best friends can change according to what is transpiring in someone’s life, like marriage. I always found it interesting that recorded in the New Testament is this charge by the Savior of the World:

“…from the beginning of creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife. And they twain shall be one flesh; so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.” (Mark 10)

It seems to me to be a pretty direct charge made to men that when they marry, they are supposed to leave the past relationships of “besties” behind and form a new “bestie” in a union with a woman, the wife. I didn’t completely understand that charge until I married more than forty-five years ago. My best friend, really prior to that, was my family member. In particular, my Mother and my closest siblings in age. I don’t really recall when the change as to who my best friend came till I got a phone call one day from my younger sister after I had been married for several years. She and I had been very close growing up. She was emotional and a bit upset, not particularly with me, but with how our relationship changed. As I recall, she said something like, “We used to be so close, and now I feel we are drifting apart!” To which I replied, “It is changing. Vickie (my wife) is now my best friend, and I guess she fulfills my needs.” I’m sure our conversation was longer and more in-depth than that, but the gest of the conversation was essentially that. After we finished, I think she felt better and understood that relationships naturally change over time. In this instance, the change is God-given.

For some, the opportunity to marry never comes in this life, and for others, their ‘best friend’ never ends up being their spouse. But, how wonderful it is to have your wife be your best friend and that a loving Father recommends it. Because He knows, long before we do, that having your wife as your best friend, and to ‘cleave under her and none else,’ is the happiest state a man can be in. If, as husbands, we are not there yet, we need to keep on trying because having your best friend on hand twenty-four hours a day is not only heavenly, it’s to die for!