Most of my friendships run on encouragement, and I am grateful for every one of them. But I have one friend in particular who will tell me, plainly, when she thinks I am handling something poorly — as a mother, as a ministry leader, as a wife. It is never comfortable to hear.
“Faithful are the wounds of a friend” (Proverbs 27:6) is a strange kind of compliment to a relationship, but it is exactly right. Flattery is easy and cheap. A friend willing to risk the relationship to tell you something true is rare, and I have come to treasure that friend more than almost anyone else in my life, precisely because she will not simply tell me what I want to hear.