Genuine Friendship: The Foundation for all Personal Relationships, Including Marriage and the Relationship with God

Many people measure their happiness by the quality of their personal relationships. No one relates perfectly, and even those who relate well can see from time to time they need to improve. This book offers insights to help the reader to do precisely that. In all of our interpersonal relationships--especially in the family- we create an environment or a culture. Ideally, we create a culture of love- one where people have the experience they are loved and they matter, they are accepted for who they are, and they are forgiven. But friendship entails more than warm feelings and personal sharing. Sustaining such relationships and fulfilling the expectations that are naturally a part of them requires real strength of character, especially if we are to persevere in them through the years. When we succeed in creating a culture of love, people have the experience of being truly united with each other. Whether it is with a friend, a spouse, or with God, it is the experience of intimacy. We naturally desire it because we were made for it.

This book is based on the fascinating idea that in all of our personal relationships, including marriage and our relationship with God, there is a basic underlying friendship that unites the persons involved. The quality of these relationships is determined by the way in which that underlying friendship is lived out.This is the genuine friendship that this book is about. Fr. Benedict Groeschel --From the forward of Genuine Friendship