How To Identify True Friends

Dear reader, you need a friend, not just any friend, you need a true friend.

In the world that we live in today, it's rare to find the true kind of friends that we desire and need.

Many times, I've vowed never to have friends again, you can't blame me, I've suffered betrayals many time, but then living without friends is almost an impossible thing to do. You need (a) friend(s).

One of the dilemma we face is how do we identify the true ones, many have entrusted their lives to friend only to discover that they're wolves in sheep in wolf's clothing. They regretted picking Judas as a friend.

Identifying a true friend is simple, yet very tasky, you need an ample of time to identify one. In this article, we would highlight some litmus tests to perform for someone you want to make your friend. These steps are simple, easy to follow and have been proven overtime to be dependable.

How do you identify true friends? What's the litmus test needed?

1. The art of silence.

2.The test for the love of money.

3. The test of games, competitions and matches.

4. The test of Secrets.

5. The test of Patience.

1. The art of silence.

We meet new people everyday, and obviously we need to interact with one another to know each other more, perhaps you've been moving closer to someone in recent times, you need silence. When you pick interest in a particular person, learn to keep quiet and observe the person's character in conversations, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. When you're silent, you see more, you learn more.

Of course, what we're talking about now is not total silence, it's a technical silence. How do you achieve this?

It's simple, by asking questions. You can ask questions on certain topics and not directly about the individual, so that you won't make the person feel uneasy.

The best way to acheiving this is asking questions about the individual's views on some certain happenings around you or anything in the world. By this, you would be able to discover more about the person. With the silence, don't make the conversation very boring.

After much period of silence in observing, you'll then be able to identify the true identity of the person in question.

2. The test for the love of money.

Love of money, they say is the root of all evil. It's what we live by, definitely you can engage in money matters will the person you choose to be your friend, can the person betray you because of the love of money?

How do you know this? You can know this in several ways 

You can keep some amount of money with the person, obviously, not too much and ask for it when he/she least expected. The person's faithfulness on money matters will be tested in that way.

For many people, their emotions is strongly tied to their current financial status. How does the person reacts when he/she is having a financial struggle? If his financial status is strongly tied to his emotions, it's advisable most times, to stay away from such people. Everyone must learn to manage what they feel in every financial difficulty they're passing through.

It's an established fact, nobody likes to loose. It's a common thing among children, they hate losses. 

How do you test someone based on this?

Find a common ground for both of you to be on different sides of play, you can be involved directly, or just supporting a person or team, it can be chess, football, rugby, golf, cards, tennis, ludo, etc.

If it is a match that both of you are directly involved in, watch the person's desperation to win, watch their reactons when they win and lose. If it's someone/ team you are supporting, watch the person's reaction after each of the activities. You may have to do this consistently for several times, when you do this, some characters will naturally manifest in the person's behavior after each loss or win.

The ability to keep secrets is important in any given relationship. How do you go about this?

You can share some little details of yourself  which won't harm you, if leaked with the individual, don't even tell the person to keep it as a secret, just share it casually, watch the person's reaction to that information shared. 

Furthermore, if you discover that the information you kept with the person was not kept intact, it's a pointer, the person can't keep things as secrets, and as such can give out valuable information to your enemy.

For you to discover this, you've to spend much time with the person. Is the person always in haste? Does he/she even listens at all? Is the individual willing to take shortcuts? Is the person just interested in results and not the process? Is the person willing to wait and endure till the desired goal is acheived?

You can decide to do something together, not something ambiguous, but something that will require patience and endurance. It depends on your own personal interests.

You can decide to learn something together, or perhaps do a task together.

Bonus tip: For whatever faith you believe in, you need to build solid discernment, and you can only achieve this through relationship with God, a person might be crafty enough to pass all the listed tests above, but discernment will save you from making a grievous mistake of choosing a Judas as a friend.

You can try all these tests out. They've been proven over time to work.

Don't make the mistake of choosing the wrong friends again!!!!