I attended a service yesterday and they talked about the topic “gossiping”. Brandon the pastor talked about several verses and this particular verse in Proverbs hit me on choosing the right friend. A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends (Prov 16:28). And I remember the story of the 3 kids (Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego) that were thrown in the fire when they prayed to God during their time. You know, they have a good friend in the name of Daniel, the 3 kids chose not to bow down to other idols and chose to praise the Almighty God instead. Their friend Daniel influenced the kids to be strong in the Lord. In short, these kids chose their friends carefully.
And in life my friend, sometimes we have to choose our friends carefully, if you want yourself to be successful, you need to surround yourself with people who have positive attitude, you have to ignore all those gossipers, negative minded people who wants to drag you down. And whether you realize it or not, the people who we are with always will reflect your personality. If you are with friends with a gossiper, eventually you will be one, if you are friends with a negative person, tomorrow you will adapt to their attitude. I still believe in reaching out to them by influencing and reaching out to them, but there is a thin line between reaching out and being influenced.
Knowing this, I encourage you to check your friends. If your friends are all negative, tend to compromise things, I think we should get new set of friends. Let us all choose our friends carefully so we can setup for success and be equipped to move forward.
