I have heard someone say, "Show me your 5 best friends and I'll show you your future." What kind of friends do you have? Are they just old friends? Work Friends? Drinking Buddies? What we really need is good friends. The book of Proverbs has a lot to say about our friends. A real friend is always there for us through the thick and thin. True friends are there to pick us up, build us up, encourage us, and they face the adversity of life with us (Proverbs 18:24, 17:17) A true friend can be trusted and they are willing to speak the truth to us (Proverbs 27:6).  We have to consider our friendship because our friends figure into our focus.

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

How are your friends influencing your life? This is a huge question to consider if you are a young person in middle school, high school, or college. As you gain new freedoms and begin to think for yourself, it's key to have good friends. Because if we have the wrong friends, we can be influenced to make unwise choices. Notice in that verse that it says a companion of fools suffers harm. You don't even need to make the wrong decisions, you can face consequences just from association.  This isn't just true as young adults, it's true in every phase of life because friends figure into our focus. If you hang out with a group of women you always complain about their husbands, don't plan to have a good marriage. You'll be influenced to see all the flaws instead of your spouse's good qualities. If your work friends always complain about the boss, do the bare minimum, and hate their job, don't plan on a promotion. We need someone in our life that we respect. We need friends who make good choices. This might mean we need to dump some toxic friends. It might mean we are friendly but not good friends with some people. Maybe your friends are okay, but it might mean we need to add some friends who will be a positive influence in our lives. 

Here's the hard part: if we want good friends, we need to be a good friend. What kind of friend are you? I think most people are neutral friends, not a bad influence or a good influence. Let's consider being a little vulnerable and taking the first step to develop a friendship. Instead of just always talking about the weather, a show, or the game, take a real interest in others and look for opportunities to support people around you. I think the church is a great place to develop positive relationships and consider joining a team or a group to be connected to others on the same trajectory. We all need friends. Let's be a good friend and walk with the wise.

For more insight on this topic, check out our Weak or Wise series.