Show me your friends ...

The journey of friends through life is an interesting one.

When you're a child, your friends are the children of your parents' friends.
When you're school aged, your friends are the kids in your class.
When you're a teen, your friends are those in your extra curriculars and other activities.
When you're in high school, your friends are those whose schedules match up with your own.
When you're in college, your friends are mixtures of new and old, school and social, from the most random of compilations. Guys and girls, adults and kids, those related and unrelated. In college you choose the friends you will remember for life.

I can define the eras of my life based on my close friends. My best friend jumped from girl to girl as I grew older, my acquaintances grew in number with my age. There were seasons when I was friends with just guys, friends with just girls, now it's a mixture of both.

Now, more than ever, my friends have influence over me. Being an "adult" now with freedom in most areas of life, the people I surround myself with determines my attitude, actions and even thoughts and ideas. I thank God for my upstanding Christian friends. They are such a blessing in my life. Too many adults don't have the positive influences in their lives that they had when they were younger and so they find themselves swayed with the crowd in a direction they never thought they would go. It is important to be cautious of the friends you make, of the friends you confide in.

As my father, pastor, grandfather, and so many other wise people around me say, "show me your friends and I'll show you your future." Now more than ever, I see this is true.