You Become Like the People you Hang Around . . .

  As most of you know, I've just returned home from a trip to Northland Camp in WI where we were doing some winter projects.
   
    On the way home, I was humming/whistling. (Making music in a really weird way!) And my sister said . . . "You've been hanging out with so-and-so too much! You sound just like her!"

   Later, looking at pictures, I realized that I am VERY influenced by the people I'm with. If they're smiling, I'm smiling, if they're climbing walls, I'm helping! If they're drinking coffee, I drink coffee. If they're working hard, I work hard.

When you have friends who love God, hanging out with them is an AWESOME adventure of exciting expeditions and surprises, but also, it's filled with encouragement. Your friends can help you seek God more. Help you understand HIM more, and help you Love HIM more. And that's a GOOD THING!!!!! But what if the people around you aren't living for God?

  Have you ever had anyone say something similar to you? "You sound like ___________!"

The people you hang around with, affect you. A lot. If you hang around people who use slang, you'll probably start using it. If you hang around with people who complain, you'll probably start complaining, if you hang around people who are ALWAYS cheerful, you might find yourself being more cheerful. If you hang out with hard workers, you'll start to work harder.

In a later text conversation, TOTALLY unrelated to my thoughts on friends, I mentioned that I wished I could be more like Jesus, and he responded. "Maybe you should hang out with HIM more."

   I'd NEVER thought of it like that before. If we want to be like Christ, if we want to demonstrate HIS love, if we want HIS joy to shine through, we've got to hang out with HIM! Just like I become like the people I hang out with, I can hang out with Jesus to become like HIM. Now . . . 'Hang out with Jesus' isn't the kind of phrase I would usually use, but I think it gets an awesome point across! We can become like Jesus simply by spending a lot of time with HIM!

    My question for you is . . . Who are you hanging out with? Are the people around you going to drag you down? 1 Corinthians 15:33 Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. Or are you striving to be with people who will encourage you to do right? Sometimes, we have to seek for good influences around older people instead of our peers. And MOST IMPORTANTLY, are you spending time with Jesus? You can NEVER live the love of Christ, the joy of Christ, and the peace of Christ, if you're not spending time WITH Christ.