Read Proverbs 22:1  In our verse for today, King Solomon said that a good name is important.  The story is told in Genesis of Isaac and his twin sons.  His oldest son was named Esau and he was an outdoors man.  He loved hunting and didn't care for much of anything else.  Esau's younger twin brother was named Jacob and he was a sneaky boy who schmoozed with their mother, Rebekah.  Isaac was an old man and wanted to give Esau two things before he died.  As the oldest, Esau was entitled to the Blessing and the Birthright.  But Esau wasn't interested in his birthright.  He didn't care about an inheritance from his father.  As a matter of fact, one day Esau came back from hunting empty-handed and chanced upon His brother Jacob, who happened to be cooking some great-smelling porridge.  Esau was starving and begged his sneaky brother for some of the porridge.  Jacob said, "Will you give me the family birthright for a bowl?"  Esau replied, "Sure.  I don't care about an old birthright and anyway, it won't do me any good if I starve to death."  Esau despised his family name.  He didn't care that his father had a good reputation.  He just wanted to hunt and stay in the woods all day long.  But our verse says that a good name is important.  We should respect and protect our father's name.  We have two (or sometimes three) names: Our surname, which is the family name and our given name, which is our first name and the one that was given to us by our parents when we were born.  We carry our father's name with us wherever we go.  We should respect it and try to uphold it.  We should not do anything that would bring shame to our family name.  The last part of our verse says that when we develop a close friendship, we should take care of it just as much as we take care of our good family name.  We should Guard our friendships and our family name more than a pile of money.  We should be careful of our reputation.  Reputations are what others think about us.  Reputations are built up over years and years, but can be torn down in moments by careless actions.  Guard your good family name.  Guard your good friendships.  Both are so important.  Solomon said so!