We like it when a friend says things that lift our spirits.
But we typically don’t like it when the friend says things that burden our spirits.
Fortunately, there’s more of the former than the latter.
Or else, perhaps the person really isn’t our friend.
Count it a blessing when a friend is willing to be unpopular with you for the sake of helping you. If he or she sincerely has your best interests at heart, the sting of suggestion or correction will be therapeutic, not toxic.
Solomon wrote about this in Proverbs 27:
“As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.” (verse 17)
Solomon was the wisest man on earth, at least for a time, but then he displayed a lengthy series of really dumb decisions that defied God’s commands.
It’s amazing how some people who are so smart can act so dumb.
Pride blinds, though, the Bible teaches over and over and over.
We need friends who’ll tell us we’re heading down the wrong road, a road that just might have a cliff at the end with no warning signs to stop us once we’ve driven beyond the voices of warning.
I am certain that former CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus would not be agonizing amidst a horrible tsunami of self-imposed moral, familial, political, social chaos if he had listened to the years of advice from friends about avoiding flirtatious overtures.
How could somebody so smart do something so dumb and so disruptive? Ignoring the advice of friends, that’s how.
If a friend has been warning you lately about something you’re doing or considering, please listen. Please compare his or her advice with the greatest friendship advice of all — that from Jesus Christ taught in the Gospels.
For any situation you face, Jesus has a teaching for it. If you want one and can’t find it, contact me. I’ll help you.
It is SO much better to take a temporary hit to our pride and change direction than it is to obliviously think we’re smarter than everybody else and then wonder what happened as we fly off the cliff to a terrible ending.
As always, I love you
Martin
