Who’s in your inner circle?

“Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens a friend’s character” Proverbs 27:17 (ISV) 

There is a common saying that goes “Show me your friends and I will tell you who you are”; I concur. Towards the end of last year, I was doing some reevaluation; because I wasn’t content with the amount of progress that I had made in certain areas of my life. I was determined to make 2017 a HIT, a year to go down as one of my best!

After much prayer and meditation, I realized that I had to reconsider my inner cycle. I can count on one hand how many people I consider to be a friend. I was never one to flourish amongst a “clique” or “squad”. So I kept my circle small intentionally. It pained me to have to reconsider certain relationships, I thought that I had figure this friendship thing out; I was proud to proclaim “no new friends”. But I was absolutely mistaken!

When I began to sift my inner circle, I realized that some of my friend’s bad habits were rubbing off on me. It was very subtle, but it was happening. I noticed that when I spoke to a particular friend, our conversations mostly involved gossip. Although I wasn’t an active participate, I enabled her because I was always willing to listen. If someone talks to you about others, they will talk about you to others; I found this out the hard way. And this is when it hit me.

“Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”  1 Corinthians 15:33 (NIV)

Although I did not find myself gossiping, I realized that my mindset about certain things began to change in a bad way. Your character is an offshoot of your mindset. So I had to protect my character and take a few steps back and setup boundaries.