Circles Matter

By: Jenifer Metzger

The one who walks with the wise will become wise,

but a companion of fools will suffer harm.

Proverbs 13:20 CSB

I love strawberries. Every day for lunch I have vanilla Greek yogurt with sliced strawberries, drizzled with honey, and topped with granola. Yes, this is my lunch every day. Recently I went to make this delicious treat at lunch time and noticed one of the strawberries was rotten. I lifted it out of the container to toss out, but noticed all the berries that were touching it were also now beginning to rot. The other berries were okay, just the closest to the rotten one were showing signs of rot.

The same can be said for our relationships. Proverbs tells us that when we walk with the wise, we too become wise. However, when our companions are fools, we will find harm.

Growing up, my family called a refrigerator a frig. My husband's family called it an icebox. When we began dating I subconsciously picked up the habit and began calling a refrigerator an icebox. Think of something you've picked up from your spouse or maybe best friend. It's not that we purposely do it, it just becomes normal to us and we unintentionally start to do or say it.

Then sometimes we purposely pick up on things. Someone I follow online posted a picture of herself wearing an outfit that I thought was really cute. So I headed over to Amazon to find similar pieces to recreate the outfit.

We pick up on things, sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally; sometimes good and sometimes bad. But the truth is, we will pick up on things. Because of this, who we hang around matters. We must choose our circle wisely.

This doesn't mean that every single friend and acquaintance needs to be a Spirit-filled believer. After all, we do need to be a witness to others. But it does mean that those closest to us, that inner circle that we associate with the most, need to be people who are pointing us to Jesus. People who, if we pick up on their habits or words, will  not lead us down a path that pulls us away from God.

You may say, "But Jesus ate with sinners," as the Gospels tell us. Yes, He did. But He did so with the purpose of bringing them out of their sin. And yet, those who were His inner circle, the ones He spent the most time with, were Godly men. Men who were sharing the Gospel, men who were serving, men who were praying.

If you are having a bad day at work and call a friend, you need to be calling a friend who is going to pray for you, not one who will gossip with you. If you are your husband are having a disagreement and you call a friend, you need to call one who will pray over you and your marriage, not one that will bash men.

It's better to have a very tight circle of a couple Godly friends then a large circle of people who will bring us to harm. Friend, who we hang around matters so choose your circle wisely. 

Discussion:
1. Think about something you've picked up from someone. Was it something positive or negative?
2. If you have Godly friends, cultivate those relationships. If you don't feel like you have a Godly friend, pray and ask God to bring someone to your life. You can also do things like attend church events and join a Bible study to get to know people.