Good Association - Why It Matters
After reading comments from my previous post on the way people lived their life, I feel it's important association is discussed. What is association all about? Association is all about the relationship between people, perhaps due to some similar interests. It is common to hear someone say, my friends live wayward lifestyles, they smoke and even engage in immoral activities, but I'm not like them I avoid such things. I'll like us to take a deep look at this and see if they can really influence us or not.
I read a book many years ago that likened humans to sponges. Actually, humans absorb things around them just the way sponges do. If a sponge is kept in a clean water, it remains clean. When it is put in an oily water, it becomes oily. Can a sponge say, "I'm clean, even if I'm placed in a dirty water I'll still be clean in it". It's possible to remain chaste in an ungodly world, but associating with people without ethics can influence one dangerously.
When you go through the scriptures, 1 Corinthians 15: 33 says,
Be not deceived: Evil companionships corrupt good morals. - ASVThe scripture starts with a warning, do not deceived; this is because many are easily deceived today. Just like the sponge we mentioned earlier, that thinks it can remain clean when it chooses to be in a dirty water. The other part of the scripture adds, bad (or evil) association spoils good morals. What is good can easily become bad, when not taken care of properly. Good manners can easily become bad manners, when we associate with those with bad manners.
There's this other scripture I'll like us to read. Proverbs 13: 20,
He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. - KJV
This shows a very sharp contrast. The one that deals with wise people shall be wise, here is taking about association. While the ones that associate with unwise persons (or fools) will be destroyed. Another bible translation used fare badly in place of be destroyed. This shows that the results of associating with unwise people is something everyone of us should want to avoid.
When it comes to association, who are your friends? Which category do they fall in? Wise persons or unwise persons?
When associating with people we should have the texts from those scriptures at the back of our minds. Like minds tends to attracts most of the time, so we should try to avoid any harmful relationship. A good student of the bible always heed to the advice found in God's words. Are you a good student?
Sometimes one might reason that "No, ABC is not like that, he wouldn't lure me into pratices that I do not like". But the fact is that in life, you either win or lose, there is hardly a balance. It's either you try to to help your friend to change for good, or he helps you to get bad. Associating with smart people will definitely make you smart too.
Steemchurch is an amazing project on the Steem Blockchain that was initiated by @Sirknight. It also happens to be the very first church on the blockchain and home to many. Just go through @Steemchurch, to see some articles on the project.
Here is a list of some contributors called apostles,
@tremendospercy - The Valiant!
@gniksivart - The Just!
@tikhub - The Insightful!
@abiye - The Humble!
@prime-cleric - The Spiritual!
@jaff8 - The Pure!
@owoblow-steemit - The Righteous!
@darlenys01 - The Bold!
Thanks for coming around :)
I love making acquitances massively but when ot comes tp friends trust me I.can be so selective.
I choose my friends and not the other way round
Even some my friends are usually not so.good but thats when i draw boundaries so no one van influence me into doing what I woundnt want to do
Good read @The pure
Thanks for the contribution. It is very good to draw a line between friends, that's more like limits.
Hello @jaff8, thanks for this awesome post. Human nature is truly like a sponge. This goes even beyond the mind. Our minds pick up vibes of the 3-5 closest people we stay around; positive vibes and negative vibes. Mind your association, it matters in all you do.
Great post. Great project @steemchurch.
vibes - Our association can definitely be likened to that. One has to be really mindful.
Steemchurch is an awesome project, I'll be glad if you could join and write some articles on the tag.
You folks have really defined the true and sufficient apostle hood I've ever seen, and the first one steemit, I've been rearing to be part of the apostleship but I don't know how I could
Real true, the company you keep defines who you are. It's amazing the way you emphasize on the need of good association. This is definitely an amazing post. Pls keep up the good work.
Thanks Precious, our company really defines us.
If a man can learn by two ways (reading and associating with smarter people), therefore associating with God should be a great privilege to the Christians.
Because God is the smartest.
Amazing post Apostle #jaff8
SHALOM
Thanks for coming around Odia.
Always looking forward to when #Thepure @jaff8 will make a steemchurch post because his posts are always educative as well as spiritual. It's very important to keep good association as more importantly not to be bad company to others
We are as good as the association we keep and there is a saying "show me your friends and I will tell who you are" ..keeping good company bring good results just like associating with the steemchurch gives you spiritual growth
Your friends can influence you without you even knowing.
Staying away from bad company is best way to maintain the good manner we learnt from our parents and the church.
Yeah, we shouldn't get close to bad associates at all.
In simple terms, the Association is what occurs when the elements of the world form a pair in the human mind. To build a good Association need to know some useful criteria for finding connections between things and to develop their associative thinking and creative imagination.
I'll take criteria from what you wrote. One should definitely know what he wants to see in friends.
Show me your friend i will tell you who you are this saying says alot about us becaus the peers we keep helps shape us there fire uf we keep the wrong one we find our self in bad shape and our success in life depends on our association postive people.
The cliché "show me your friends and I will tell you who you are is so true".... we ought to find people with similar beliefs and values to hang out with.
That clique us definitely true to some extent. What I feel it means though, is that our associates are people that have similar habits when compared to us.