Leaving a friendship is never an easy decision. It is one that causes heartache and pain. It is a decision that causes grief knowing you are walking away from someone and leaving them behind. Leaving a friendship can change your life. It can bring you to tears. It can bring emotions you aren't used to feeling. It can leave you melodramatic. It can cause depression. It can bring you anger. And it can bring you pain. But the one important thing about walking away is how to leave a friendship and never look back.

Every person in this world has had "those" friends that have differences of opinions. It may be due to religion. It may be due to a relationship. It may be due to something as childish as college or professional sports. Some of us have friendships that we cannot discuss difficult subjects such as politics, religion or abortion without an argument. And at some point and time, we have to make a decision if that friendship is worth keeping.

There are those friendships that simply won't work due to religion. Some people expect their friends to attend church, practice the gospel, shove their religion down the throats of believers, nonbelievers, and people that hug trees. And the minute someone stops going to church? The text messages stop. The contact stops. The conversations stop. And the friendship stops. It's a part of life. When people don't share the same interests, have something similar in common, or have a subject to talk about, it makes it difficult to maintain a friendship. The hardest part is walking away. How to leave a friendship and never look back. Can you do it because of a subject like religion?

Then there are "those" friends that you can't talk to about anything that you don't have the same opinion as they do. Whether it is professional sports, college sports, abortion, politics or something like music, every time you try to have a discussion with those friends, you end up in an argument, there are heated conversations, there is anger, discomfort, and frustration. You walk away feeling like you've been belittled, their opinion has to be the only one that matters, and no matter how hard you try to agree to disagree, with them, it's simply not possible. And at some point and time, you have to make a painful decision. How to walk away and leave a friendship and never look back.

A friendship can be one that lasts a week, a month, a year, half your life or from the time you are a child until the time one of the people you have had in your life passes away. Friendships can last a lifetime. Or they can come and go with the blink of an eye. With some friendships it is simply because someone changes jobs, they move away, relocate to another town, stop using social media, or for an assorted number of reasons. People stop talking. They stop texting. They don't share anything in common. And is it really a friendship if one person or the other doesn't make any contact or have any communication? Life gets in the way. People get busy. But with social media, cell phones, texting and calling, and even the internet, there should be no reason that people calling themselves "friends" can't keep in touch. If people don't keep in touch? Someone chooses to make that decision. And at some point and time, you need to ask yourself an important question - Do you keep them in your life or do you walk away and leave the friendship behind and never look back?

Many people meet friends in church. And the common denominator is the church. The moment that someone leaves that church, typically the friendship ends. The conversations become muted over time. The text messages stop. One person realizes the other isn't going back to church. Or at least going to "their" church. They don't want to explain to their friends why someone they associate with isn't a "good" Christian and doesn't attend church. It often leads to an awkward conversation. So inevitably one person stops reaching out to the other person. Then at some point and time, that person decides to reach out to look good, tell their other Christian friends, "Yep, I made contact. I made an attempt" and it makes them look good in their own eyes but in the eyes of others. The reality is? Is this a friendship? Or is this convenience? And with nothing in common any longer, is it worth keeping a friendship around? Or do you decide at some point and time it's time to walk away and leave the friendship behind and never look back?

When you work with someone at your place of employment, whether for a month, a year or half your life, when you leave, you no longer share common stories about coworkers. You can no longer talk about work-related incidents because you do not share that similarity. You cannot talk about a horrible boss, something funny someone did, or something that you saw happen at your workplace because you don't work there anymore. You have nothing to share. So do you still call it a friendship or do you walk away and leave that friendship and never look back?

If you constantly argue with someone about politics, religion or abortion do you tolerate that friendship if the other person has opinions you don't agree with? Do you constantly argue with them, have heated conversations, leave the discussion angry, and get mad at them because they are a friend that won't listen to you? Do you tolerate that friendship or do you walk away, leave the friendship and never look back?

Every one of us at some point and time in our lives has to make that decision. When do we delete someone off social media? When do we delete phone numbers? When do we stop answering text messages? When do we no longer pick up the phone and answer their call? When do we no longer call them back? A hard decision that each of us faces at some point and time with a friendship.

Walking away - When do we leave a friend behind and never look back?