Skip to main content

The Company You Keep

Take a close look at the friends you surround yourself with. Do you need to change or maybe even eliminate some of those relationships? 

 Toxic people are just that - TOXIC to your life. Be careful who you let into your circle because your friends should be people who will lift you up, help edify you, cheer you on, and be excited for you when something great happens in your life. Negative Nancys will do the opposite. They will tear you down, be-little you, gossip about you behind your back, be spiteful when good things happen to you, and most importantly bash your husband. 

 It is NEVER okay for anyone to bash husbands, hers, mine or yours! Marriages have rocky roads and it is best to have a few select friends you ask to pray for your marriage during difficult times but these friends should be cheerleaders of your husband too. They should know his character well enough to point out the good in him and want a win for your marriage - and you should want the same for your friends. 

 "Here are some things to consider when looking at the people you surround yourself with:

  • Does she speak the truth? If she exaggerates the misdeeds (real or imagined) of the man in her life (or your life), it may be time to lessen your time with her.
  • When speaking the truth, does she do it with love? So maybe her husband really does do some not so great things, but we can either approach our relationships with love or judgment. We don't get to do both. Is she speaking the truth but not with love? It may be time to move on.
  • Does she love being stuck? Some people just love being stuck in their bad situation. It doesn't matter how many suggestions you make or ideas you offer - they just want to be stuck. Get out now before they start to limit your thinking about your own marriage."
I recently read that excerpt from 101 simple ways to show your husband you love him by Kathi Lipp. It was number one, for good reason. My grandfather would always tell my dad growing up "show me who your friends are and I will show you who you are." And isn't that so true? We tend to take on characteristics from the people we hang out with and like one bad apple in the bag of fresh ones, it will turn the others rotten. If we are not wise and allow a Negative Nancy to come into our lives and say hateful things about her own husband, repeatedly, we can bet that we will soon find ourselves saying hateful things about our own men. It won't start off bad, but maybe he doesn't clean up after himself and it drives you crazy, or maybe he doesn't turn his socks right side out for the wash and you want to beat him for having to stick your hand inside those nasty, crusty socks...But be ye warned! This is how husband bashing starts. You give the enemy an inch and he will take a foot. Before long you will be talking about very private, intimate struggles you and your husband are going through and it won't be said in love or for the right reasons. 

Now, I'm not saying get rid of all the people who ever said anything bad about their husbands once. No, no. If anything we need to reach out in love for them and say "now that wasn't very encouraging for your husband" and get them back on the right track. Everyone has bad days, and sometimes they need to get it out in the open and tell someone about it. We need to speak truth to them though. "Perhaps your husband had a mishappening, a screw up, etc. but remember he is caring in this area. Have you talked with him about it yet?" 
I'm talking about the people who continually put their husbands down, who have nothing good ever to say about them or yours, who point out their every flaw. RUN. Do not let this person stay in your life. Your marriage is the most important thing on this earth, let's treat it as such.

Go let YOUR love multiply.

XOXOXO 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Centerpiece Craft - 4th of July

I've started preparing for my BBQ on July 4th and the first thing I knew I wanted to make was a centerpiece for the table where all the food is going to be laid out. Regardless of what's going on in Washington and who is President right now, I'm a diehard America fan. My father was in the Air Force, I grew up a Military Brat, tons of uncles and aunts and my grandparents have served... and my brother is currently serving the US Air Force so I'm a little obsessed with these patriotic holidays. I think I mentioned before that July 4th is becoming one of my favorites but anyway because of this I'm going all out for this BBQ so let's get into the craft. What You Will Need: A large clear jar or container Pinecones Red, White & Blue spray paint Fun, patriotic sprays 2 Cardboard boxes - to keep the mess to a minimum I found my pinecones about two years ago now from a floral shop on craigslist that was closing. They had thrown out everything and I was there...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nursery Sneak Peek

We’re still organizing the nursery so I didn't take full pictures of the room but here's a few sneak peek photos of what we have set up so far. Our room isn't really "themed" but it's painted mint and grey and so we kept those colors in mind went we bought accessories.   This is the girls' closet. We were so blessed to have friends and family give us hand me downs on top of all the new clothing items we received from the baby showers. They have more than enough, I just hope I'm able to take pictures of them in everything before they outgrow them!!   This is their changing table (before)  When we had our showers we just put everything up and out of the way but then I realized we needed to get a system going in here so we bought small baskets from the dollar store and were able to organize the little stuff. I actually love the way it came together (and after) Top is their changing pad - cover is from Babies R Us "woodland" them...
Post a Comment
Read more

Friendship

“But Amnan had a friend…who was a very subtle man.” – 2 Samuel 13:3  Friendship is important. We need to be able to share our hopes, dreams and fears with one another but we also need to be careful who we let into our circle of friends.  I remember my grandfather preaching about this subject when I was a teenager and at the time had no desire to pay attention to what he was truly saying. Now that I’m older I appreciate the words that surprisingly still ring in my ear. Grandpa Ray use to tell my father “Tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who YOU are.” It’s something my father still tells his kids to this day. I would encourage you to make time to read 2 Samuel 13 today. The bible heeds the warning about friends in this passage.  The short version of the story is that Amnan was so “in love” with one of his half-sisters, Tamar, that it was making him sad. His friend Jonadab comes in and asks Amnan why he is so sad. Amnan tells him because he is in lov...
Post a Comment
Read more