The Who

Have you heard phrases like “Bad company corrupts good morals” or “Be careful of the company that you keep?” These phrases always seemed to have a warning attached to them when we were young. Our parents never phrased these commands from a positive standpoint. We were never applauded for developing good morals from good company . Our parents, in their wisdom, knew our friends would have a dramatic impact on our lives. When we reflect on our formative years, many of our memories involved our friends.

As we move into adulthood, friendships take on a different context. Friends still hold influence on our lives but to varying degrees. Sometimes, we seek advice from those friends who we know will tell us what we want to hear. As we learn lessons the hard way, we learn to be more wise in seeking advise from our friends. After all, you wouldn’t ask a friend who has never balanced his checkbook for advice on your finances, right? From a spiritual perspective, friends also play a pivotal role.  As we seek to develop a closer relationship with Christ, we need people in our lives  who are seeking this same goal. We all have the potential to rationalize our own poor decisions. Seeking wise counsel on the front end can prevent many a regret. The book of Proverbs guides us in choosing those wise friends in our lives:

The righteous choose their friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray. Proverbs 12:26

Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm. Proverbs 13:20

Our culture rewards those who appear to have all the answers and are self-reliant. We all know too many stories of seemingly “wise” people who suffered much harm. This didn’t happen over night. Somewhere along the way, they lost or tuned out the voice of wise counselors. So, the question we all, as followers of Christ, should ask ourselves is: who are the wise counselors in my life? Who are those people who have permission to ask me challenging questions? Who are those people who won’t just tell me what they think I want to hear but will tell me the truth even when it’s difficult?  The WHO of community are these type of people in our lives. You may call them small group members, mentors, accountability partners, or just good friends. We all need these  people in our lives.

Steve Giddens