Friendship

Words and thoughts that if taken to heart would keep more people out of prison, Than  anything else I can imagine. For most inmates prison is a game of follow the leader.

Sirach 6: 5-17

 

5 A kind mouth multiplies friends, and gracious lips prompt friendly greetings.
6 Let your acquaintances be many, but one in a thousand your confidant.
7 When you gain a friend, first test him, and be not too ready to trust him
8 For one sort of friend is a friend when it suits him, but he will not be with you in time of distress.
9 Another is a friend who becomes an enemy, and tells of the quarrel to your shame.
10 Another is a friend, a boon companion, who will not be with you when sorrow comes.
11 When things go well, he is your other self, and lords it over your servants;
12 But if you are brought low, he turns against you and avoids meeting you.
13 Keep away from your enemies; be on your guard with your friends.

 

14 A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure.
15 A faithful friend is beyond price, no sum can balance his worth.
16 A faithful friend is a life-saving remedy, such as he who fears God finds;
17 For he who fears God behaves accordingly, and his friend will be like himself.

So often a person will have just changed friends before getting into trouble.

Sirach 9:10

Discard not an old friend,
for the new one cannot equal him.
A new friend is like new wine
which you drink with pleasure only when it has aged.

The value of good friends is unmeasurable. Friends through Christ even more so!

Scott David Ritchie

Posted via email from scottyr's posterous