John 15:13  Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.   Proverbs 27:17  Iron sharpens iron,  So one man sharpens another.                                      Proverbs 17:17  A friend loves at all times,                                                                                    Proverbs 27:9  So a man’s counsel is sweet to his friend.

As I think about my life and all the blessings that I have to be thankful for, one of them is that I have some very good friends. What is a friend? What difference does a friend make anyway?  Why would I say that good friends are a blessing? I know a lot of guys who don’t have any close, good friends. Let me suggest 4 levels of friendship.

(1) We enjoy spending time with our friends doing things that we both enjoy. This level of friendship we could call fellowship. It might be fishing, building, cars, cards, whatever it is, we enjoy it more with our friends.

(2) Good friends know when we are down, discouraged, feeling like a loser, and they work at encouraging us. Because they are friends we don’t hesitate to share with them our struggles and trials. They also keep confidences, and they  don’t gossip about us.

(3) Good friends are those we can ask for counsel on decisions that we need to make, and problems we need to solve.  They know us well enough and care enough to give good, well thought out advice.

(4) Really good friends will tell us when we are messing up, and if they are a good friend we will listen without taking offense.

one of the requirements to have friends is to be one. Life is so much more enjoyable with good friends.