Proverbs 18:24 One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
One of the sermons my church’s pastor gave this past year made me stop and think about the people in my life and the impact they have on me. He asked us who our “five” were. What five people did we consider to be our friends? And what impact did these five individuals have on our lives? He said (and I am paraphrasing here), “Show me five people and I will know what kind of life you are living.”
It reminded me of something my parents instilled in me at a young age. My parents taught me that the types of people I associated with determined the type of person I would become. Those people would either lift me up or bring me down, so choose wisely. Later, as I became more business minded and worked in direct sales I had the lesson taught again, in a slightly different way. Leadership teaches us that if we want to be successful we need to surround ourselves with successful people.
Never did I stop to think of these three similar thought processes as being biblical. But there it is in Proverbs. If we surround ourselves with unreliable people nothing good will come and eventually we will face ruin. Making friends with people who live worldly lifestyles will lead us astray, taking us further away from God’s plan for us.
And then there is the steadfast friend, the one who loves us like family and sticks by us through everything. The friend who drops everything if you need help, who is the one you share your excitement with when tings are good and who you call when your world is falling apart. Whatever you call them, whether bestie, bff, brother from another mother or sister from another mister, it’s all the same. They are family. They build you up, support you, love you. And you do the same for them because that’s how friendship works.
Who are YOUR five? Are they closer than a brother? Or are they unreliable? Your happiness and success hang in the balance. Heed the advice of my parents and choose wisely.
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