"All that glitters isn’t gold.” You’ve heard it, and you’ve lived it. It's easy to get enamored with flashes of beauty. But it’s the testing of fire that proves something or someone to be the real deal – all that glitters isn’t gold.

I could hardly believe my eyes. After just an hour of working that little stream with my gold pan...there it was! A bright gold fleck stood out from the sand and rocks as I swirled the pan. That small piece of gold screamed at me…” you’re rich”! It had taken me a good bit to navigate my way down the ravine to where I stood, but only a few giant leaps to get up out of there. I yelled for Ivan and ran with my hand held forward for him to feast his eyes on what I believed was just the first traces of my riches.

Ivan gazed at the piece of gold, and a gentle smile crept across his face. Then I heard the dreaded words. “Karl, it’s gold in color, but it’s ‘fools gold’!” I was sick. My future now looked bleak. My ten-year-old mind had gone on a 30-second spending spree, and it was all for naught.

There’s a lot of fools gold in the world of relationships. Some are purely foes from the get-go but will glitter to get along or get a leg up. Others need someone to lean on, but they have no energy to support you. Foes are never capable of truly believing the best, praying for a blessing, or celebrating your victories – gold standard friends are scarce.

"A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." Proverbs 18:24

We’ve all been fans and foes to others at some point. So how do we see through the glitter to find the friend or friends who are pure gold? Here are a few thoughts:

•    Real friends don’t need you for what you have; they love you for who you are.

•    Real friends have your back when others are trying to stab you there.

•    Real friends celebrate your wins no matter how big they may be.

•    Real friends never leave you on the field of adversity; they carry you to safety.

•    Real friends see your potential when you can see nothing good at all.

These are just the beginning. The list could go on and on because a true friend becomes for us what we don’t possess when we need it most. Yes, Jesus is the ultimate friend, but we sometimes need a friend who can lift our head so we can even see Jesus again.

All that glitters isn’t gold, but never stop panning for the real deal in relationships. Some people who barely glitter are pure gold.