Friendships

 Proverbs 18:24  A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.  This verse is always brought up when people are wishing they had friends.
What about those people who already have friends?  Friends should be encouraging and not discouraging.  When we are around our friends what do they do for us?  I don't mean, do they give us stuff, but what do they do for us?  Are they true friends.  Do they pray with us when we need it.  Can they tell by taking one look at us that we are in need up prayer, or encouragement or just a shoulder to cry on. Do our friends lift us up or do they drag us down?  What about us?  What do we do for our friends?
Yes in order to have friends we must show ourselves to be friends.  Real friends.  A real friend will not talk bad about other people to each other.  If they talk bad about other people, it could cause the other person to reflect or think badly about those people as well, when previously they had thought highly of those people.   A real friend does not drop all their problems on their friend either.  Sometime they wait until they are asked, and other times even when they are asked, they do not tell what they are going through.  This is because they know that what they are going through could be to much for their friend to bear.  That is what God is for.  God is the one who is suppose to bear those burdens that are to heavy to bear not our closest friends.  We as humans sometime do need someone to talk to. who will talk back, but these people (friends) need to be ones that will help us and lead us to God the one who is the bearer of burdens.
Do our friends encourage us or do they discourage us. Do we encourage or discourage our friends?  We can see encouragement and discouragement on the countenance of a friend. Is this encouragement or discouragement that we see on their faces caused by us?
Proverbs 27:17 Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.  We need to ever so careful not to be an discouragement to our friends.  I would hate to be the one who has caused a friend of mine to have the look of discouragement on their face.  I would prefer to sharpen my friend and give them the look of encouragement.
We must also be careful of the friends that we pick, if we have friends that cause us to be discouraged all the time, how can we be an encouragement to others?