A couple's excitement watching their oldest child enjoy her final days of elementary school was tempered by a looming reality — soon their daughter would be a full-fledged, card-carrying junior high school student.

Gone would be the nurturing routine of afternoon recess, annual class pictures and macaroni-glued-to-construction paper art projects. Instead, their daughter would be learning to navigate long hallways, memorize her locker combination and adjust to a demanding, seven-period class schedule.

The parents worried their daughter might struggle with algebra's tricky formulas. They adjusted their schedules to accommodate after-school band practice. They brushed up on their world history so they could help with homework.

But mostly they prayed that their junior high-bound daughter would choose good friends. Friends who loved learning and experiencing new things. Friends who enjoyed swapping e-mail birthday cards and silly jokes. Friends who were, perhaps, experimenting with mascara but still juggled soccer balls. Friends who would never do their child harm.

Indeed, Church leaders have long stressed choosing quality friends. In the priesthood session of the October 2000 general conference, President Gordon B. Hinckley spoke of developing friendships.

"Every boy or girl longs for friends," he said. "No one wishes to walk alone. The warmth, the comfort, the camaraderie of a friend mean everything to a boy or girl. The friend can be either an influence for good or an influence for evil. The street gangs which are so vicious are an example of friendships gone afoul. Conversely, the association of young people in the Church and their ming-

ling in school with those of their own kind will lead them to do well and to excel in their endeavors."

President Hinckley then encouraged parents to open their homes (and, maybe, refrigerators) to their children's friends, adding humorously: "If you find they have big appetites, close your eyes and let them eat."

President Thomas S. Monson has echoed his predecessor's counsel to choose friends wisely, adding that the influence of a young person's friends "appeared to be equal to parental urging and more influential than classroom instruction or proximity to a temple" (New Era, February 2001, p. 4).

President Monson goes on to counsel his young friends to "associate with those who, like you, are planning not for temporary convenience, shallow goals, or narrow ambition, but rather for those things that matter most — even eternal objectives."

It isn't enough to simply seek good friends, added President Monson. Be a good friend.

"Not only will your circle of friends greatly influence your thinking and behavior, but you will also influence theirs. Many nonmembers have come into the Church through friends who have involved them in Church activities."

Friendship isn't the exclusive privilege of youth. Making good friends and being a good friend is essential at any age. A bishop, mission president or priesthood leader is often counted among a Church member's most loyal friends. Home and visiting teachers should be, first and foremost, genuine friends. A Scoutmaster or ward Young Women leader can forge friendships with young people that continue long after that final court of honor or girl's camp.

Remember, it was President Hinckley who taught in the April 1997 General Conference that new converts to the Church need three things to help them find their way: a responsibility, nurturing "with the good word of God" and, yes, a friend.

"It is our duty and opportunity to provide these things," he said.

One gains rich insight into the Savior's love for His disciples when He enlists the word friend in His teachings:

"This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

"Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

"Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you" (John 15: 12-15).

Choose friends wisely. Choose to be a good friend.