I think sometimes it is easy to think we do not need friends. It is easy to believe we can do it on our own. <p> I know people who are scared to have friends as they worry about the influence on their children. I know that even my mom used to tell me, "Friends will come and go, but your brothers and sisters will be there forever." I know there is truth to that, but lately when I look at some of the people that I am still friends with, they were the people that I was friends with as a child. That may not be terribly common, but I still hear from my friends I grew up with. Because of modern marvels like Facebook, I may even know what they ate for breakfast this morning!! 
<p> But when it comes down to when you are struggling through a rough patch, I know whom I can depend on to be a friend. It is the friends that you have known for years, through good times and bad and they still love you and like having you around. It is the ones who can tease you about something you did when you were 12 because they were there too….or know why you reacted to something the way you did, because you have always been that way and they don’t judge you. <p> It is friends that you make too as you get older that are important. Last night I shared a meal with a friend who moved into a new house! She has had so many hard things in her life, yet, we were able to rejoice together about this beautiful new house she has….and I could understand her feelings about it, because I know how she grew up, I knew her parents, and I know friends of the family, those are just something sometimes other people can’t get. <p>
I love my family! They are wonderful, but I am so thankful for friends.
<p>“A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” Proverbs 17:17, KJV.