What is the sign of a friend? Is it that he tells you his secret sorrows? No, it is that he tells you his secret joys. Many people will confide their secret sorrows to you, but the final mark of intimacy is when they share their secret joys with you.

A good relationship is a good relationship because the people in the relationship never quit working on the relationship.

Don't listen to the malicious comments of those friends who, never taking any risks themselves, can only see other people's failures.

Another dynamic at work here is how friends, family, and church members would handle it if they knew what you were thinking. Feeling judged and banished is a common story among those who take a risk to let people in on their well-guarded secret.

when that man assigns his inheritance to his sons he must not appoint the son of the beloved wife as the firstborn over the son of the unloved wife.

Then Samson’s wife came to him, weeping, and said, “You hate me! You do not really love me! You have posed to my people a riddle, but have not explained it to me.” “Look,” he said, “I have not even explained it to my father or mother, so why should I explain it to you?”

and agreed to stay with him, and the young man became like a son to Micah.

Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD punish me, and ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.”

When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped trying to persuade her.

When Ruth returned to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked her, “How did it go, my daughter?” Then Ruth told her all that Boaz had done for her.

His armor-bearer replied, “Do all that is in your heart. Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul.”

Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself.