"Friends are like elevators, they'll take you up or bring you down." How true! And it's easier to let unwisely selected associates pull you down than it is to pull them up. If you doubt what I say, try standing on a chair while grasping another's hand and see which is easier: to lift the other person into the chair beside you, or for the other person to pull you down to their level. And make no mistake about it, it works the same way with example and influence.

So, we need to be quite selective when it comes to choosing our friends and those we spend the most time with. The Bible puts it like this: "Be not be deceived: 'Bad company corrupts good morals.'" - (1 Cor. 15:33). "He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will suffer harm." - (Pro. 13:20). I can't recall the number of times I've talked to parents about the life of folly lived by their children and how often they've told me that their children's downfall was directly related to the people they chose to hang out with. Experience has taught me the necessity of exercising care in the selection of companions. Take this advice to heart: if you don't like others thinking you are like the ones you run around with, get some new friends to run around with. Remember: if you lie down with dogs, you'll get up with fleas.

People with Christian principles are the best ones to associate with. They'll encourage you to do what's right in every situation. The story of the prodigal teaches us that "there is no honor among thieves," for those who had helped him waste his money in frivolity were no where to be found when he was reduced to slopping the pigs. Friends in evil will abandon you, but not Christian ones. A wise man said, "A man of many friends comes to ruin, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." - (Pro. 18:24). That friend/brother who sticks close is more times than not a Christian.

Lonnie Ritchie
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