Friendship
Proverbs 17:17
All of life is a relationship: relationship with God, which is vertical, and relationship with other people, which is horizontal. Our relationship with God effects and has a powerful influence on all other relations. One of the most difficult and the most influential single priority under God is our choice of friends. When you were a child a friend caused you to go to church, curse or enjoy a sport, and influenced how you spent your free time. Many teens may be led the wrong way by friends causing them to be led astray into a promiscuous lifestyle or keep them from trouble by encouraging them to know and love the Lord. Later, adult friends have great impact in just as many vital areas that affect future generations.
How do we choose friends and evaluate their affect on our lives? First we need to see that there are different levels of friendship: casual friendship, close friendship and intimate friendship. A foolish person allows a person entree into their lives on an intimate level before discerning that they are the kind of individual that they desire on that level.
We must determine where we are going and our personal objectives first, then decide whether this "friend" will help us achieve the goals which we believe God has laid out for our life.The following are some questions to ask about this potential intimate friend.
Is he/she a Christian, busy seeking Jesus as Lord in the process of being
holy?
Is he/she a challenge for me to be what God wants me to be?
Is he/she a giver or a taker?
Does he/she know who they are and have some idea of where they are
heading in life?
Does he/she challenge my thinking?
Are there major character flaws that will drag you down? ie. gossip, truthfulness, bitterness, moral impurity, slothfulness, laziness, angerFriendship is a real priority in life. If you have three good friends, I believe you are blessed. Be very careful who you choose or allow into your inner circle. Jesus had Peter, James, and John as close friends. While he had many others that were friends, these three had entrance into his heart. Talk with your children about their friends. They are rudders that affect their lives positively and negatively.
Since some people naturally pick the wrong friends, a right approach would be for us to yield the right of picking our friends to God. Say "Lord, pick my friends and take away those who do not please you. Bring the right people into my life so I may better please you." Proverbs 18:24 says "A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother".
