Friendship and family ties

Proverbs 17:17

A friend is a friend at all times, and a brother is born for the time of adversity. 

Read this last night and was thinking, oh so that's the standard for friendships!  In the new King James version, it reads : A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

Just as I sit back and rue all the bad friends I've had in the past and the few good friends that I ought to cherish more, today's reading provides the conclusion :

Heb 13:1-8

Let brotherly love continue.
Do not neglect hospitality,
for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels.
Be mindful of prisoners as if sharing their imprisonment,
and of the ill-treated as of yourselves,
for you also are in the body.
Let marriage be honored among all
and the marriage bed be kept undefiled,
for God will judge the immoral and adulterers.
Let your life be free from love of money
but be content with what you have,
for he has said, I will never forsake you or abandon you.
Thus we may say with confidence:

The Lord is my helper,
and I will not be afraid.
What can anyone do to me?

Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you.
Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.