Lesson for the Week

The Influence
(10/19/10)

The other day I was walking with my daughter, and I asked her how her day was. She was excited because she and a boy in her class had picked out the same book in the school library. I asked her if he was her friend, and she replied, “He’s going to tell me on Monday”… to which I replied, “Why do you have to wait to find out if he’s going to be your friend?” Her answer surprised me. She said, “He said he had to think about it.” Trying not to laugh, I just said, “Well, OK!” As we kept walking, I started thinking about the wisdom in the boy’s statement. Before we become good friends with someone, should we think about whether or not we should be spending time with them at all? Understand that this is not a question of race, nationality, finances, background, etc. My thought process is this. Who we spend time with can influence us either in a positive or a negative way. We can either choose to be with those who look on the bright side of life, encourage us, pray for us when we need it, speak with wisdom over our lives, and are there for us; or, we can choose to be with those who are always negative, speaking ill of others, jealous of the blessings we receive, and are never there for us. The choice seems pretty simple, yet so many of us make the wrong ones every day. We tend to stay with what (or who) we know when God is trying to move us on to something better. This is not to say that we should never be there for those who need us, whether physically, through prayer, or spiritual counseling. If, however, these same people are doing nothing but bringing us down, how will we ever move toward the higher places that God has called us to be in? So here are my “questions of the day” for each one of us… who are we spending time with? Who are we letting influence us on a regular basis? Can we look at our lives and say that God is in the middle of our relationships, or are we just holding on to something or someone that God wants us to let go of? These are hard questions to ask ourselves, but I know that if changes need to be made, God will help us make them. Let’s give our relationships to God, and as with everything else in our lives, He will give us His best.

Proverbs 11:3
Proverbs 10:17
Proverbs 12:5
2 Timothy 2:20-21