A friend.
The word friend is over used, but not as much as other words are. If we die with 5 real friends, we´ve accomplished something..
My 9 year old daughter changes best friends at school like she changes shoes. Then she qualifies best friends with a badge of BFF,, what ever that last F means i haven´t a clue,, but Winnie Joy changes BFF´s ever faster.
Words like
anything else get cheapened by over use, and the people that are using them. Guys often use the word ´LOVE´ on different women every weekend. All types of secular music over use really nice words enough to make them meaningless. The religious words ´Christian, Evangelical, and Brother´ are words that I used to love. Now they tend to put me on alert. I used to be elated when I saw someone wearing a cross on their neck, who had a fish on their business card and said they were evangelical Christians or would call me a brother. Now I back away from them in terror. Brother is a totally conditional word. It´s saying that you are a brother until you do something contrary to what I believe. When people I barely know give me a big hug and call me brother it makes my skin crawl. (not big on man hugs anyway)
Honestly I like the word Friend more than any of these words. FRIEND is my favorite word as a matter of fact, even though it is overused. A true friend is with you through thick and thin. The church (institution) teaches you to be a fair-weathered friend. Jesus teaches us (Through HIS example) to be a Friend who will never leave nor forsake. Jesus in John 15 says He´s our Friend. A friend that is close than a brother. YWAM Amsterdam has coined a phrase FRIENDSHIP ministry. I love that. I really wish that more ´christians´ would too.
Below is a song Winnie´s teaching to the kids at the Chureca. Tengo un amigo que me ama (i have a friend who loves me)