Everyone has relationships in their life – parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, aunts, uncles, cousins, people from school, people in your neighborhood, people on your sports teams (I think you get the point).
The thing is, we need to know what relationships are good and which are bad (I talked about good friends in a past devo titled FRIENDS + FAMILY – go check it out!).
Good relationships point us towards God and help us build good character.
Bad relationships…well, do the opposite. They point us away from God and cause us to maybe build not-so-good habits.
Kind of like an elevator. Friends are like elevator buttons. They can bring you up…or bring you down.
You know, if you have friends that bring you down, you might as well be alone and wait for God to give you the right friends. After all, your siblings might enjoy a little time with you 😉
Proverbs 18:24: One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Did you see that? But there IS a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Even if it might not look like it, God has the perfect friend(s) for you – and maybe you’ve already met them! If not, know that God has a plan…and His plan is greater than all others.
Daily Challenge: Take a moment today to think about all of your friends (your elevator buttons!) – are they bringing you up?… Or bringing you down?
Comment Below: Share a time (if you had one) where you had to step back from some friends that were bringing you down and how God placed the right friends in your life; you just had to wait.
Very insightful! The truth is that we have the choice whether we move up or down in our life experience. Sometimes moving upward is only one floor or experience at a time. But we need to keep the bigger picture of life choices and our power to determine ascending or descending.
Such an important life principle! We all want to be liked it and accepted. But being “accepted” by the wrong crowd is usually a temporary thing with long-term negative results. If we’re feeling lonely and “left out,” the best advice is, “To have a friend, be a friend.” Don’t wait for others to reach out to you; reach out to someone today
When I was in the Navy I had to choose between the crowd that went drinking every weekend or the (smaller) group that met for Bible study and fellowship.
I’m glad you’re making wise choices