“Friend.” "Make friends". "Friendship". “Friendliness” Concepts that are familiar to us all, but can we give them a clear definition? Probably the first thing a person learns from childhood is the ability to be friends. And it’s really happiness when you have real friends. But it also happens that under the guise of friendship, other forms of relationships are hidden, which often bring us the pain of disappointment. Therefore, it is important to learn the ability to distinguish friendship in the mosaic of forms of relationships between people. In addition, understanding what friendship is will help us to be a good friend ourselves, find reliable friends and keep our friendship strong. This is what this article is dedicated to. Let's start with the existing definitions of friendship. Friendship is “close relationships based on mutual trust, affection , community of interests" (Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary). Friendship is a deep connection between people, which presupposes "not only loyalty and mutual assistance, but also inner closeness, frankness,... love" (Encyclopedia "Around the World"). In the Bible, the concept of friendship is conveyed by the Greek noun “philia” and the verb “phileo”, which is translated as “to treasure” (someone). This word implies "warmth, intimacy and affection." “Philia is warm, friendly love based on mutual respect. A feeling that spontaneously arises in our heart.” According to James Strong, the verb phileo means “to be a friend (to love), that is, to express affection (meaning a personal commitment in which feelings predominate)” (The Watchtower, 10/15/93 issues, p. 12 , 17, 18 and from 1.10.96, p. 9). So what happens? Firstly, friendship is a feeling; secondly, it arises spontaneously. You cannot be friends at the behest of the mind. Thirdly, friendship is based on equality, honesty and respect. The main functions of friendship are protection and support. A friend is another me who can complement me in a situation where I can’t cope alone, in trouble, in grief, etc. .d. At the same time, my friend is next to me and in joy. Friendship doubles joys and cuts sorrows in half (c) Very often you can observe when two people are “friends” against someone, or against everyone. This type of friendship is acceptable, but, probably, it is one of the most primitive types of friendship, when two people are united only by the desire to defeat the third and makes people dependent on each other. This is how children or immature adults often become friends. It is unlikely that relationships in which there are selfish goals can be called friendship. For pseudo-friendship, it is enough to “get comfortable”, receive from the person what you need, and proudly call yourself his friend. Such people are like parasites who literally merge with us, pull certain emotions out of us, assert themselves at our expense, spend time with us when they are bored, but are not real friends. And we still don’t want to admit this to ourselves, even if we feel that something wrong is happening. We find justification for certain actions, we console ourselves that “no one is without sin,” we are afraid of offending a person, and we tolerate it while our so-called friend uses us. At the same time, we ourselves are the consumer in this situation. After all, loneliness is so scary and you so want to be friends, well, even if a friend is like that, there is the very concept of friendship, or rather the illusion of friendship. Not everyone has the opportunity to be friends, but everyone has access to such a concept as “friendliness”, which can be shown in relation to to all the people in your reality. And probably friendliness is the highest aerobatics in the ability to be friends. Friendliness - benevolence, affability, friendliness, sociability. (Dictionary of synonyms) is the ability to see and respect the personality in another person. is a willingness to trust others and fate. is the ability to live in harmony with people of different views and beliefs. - this is the desire and ability to find mutual understanding with others. - this is openness to all manifestations of life. – this is the smile of a person in life and the answering smile of life to a person. - This is both a person’s character trait and his manner of behavior. Benefits of friendlinessFriendliness gives openness - to building relationships. Provides interest - to people and!