 who in many ways I'm closer to than I am my own flesh and blood. You've got to thank God for friends like that. Those kinds of friends, as Proverbs chapter 27 puts it, and in verse 17, as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens the other. Those are the good kind of friends. The kinds of friends that make you better than you were. That encourage you to be better than you are today. We all need friends like that. And I'm grateful to God for them all.