This episode reflects on Proverbs 13:20 and the powerful influence the people around us can have on who we become. While we are called to love and accept everyone, we should also be intentional about the people we allow to influence us most. Just as spending time with skilled athletes can help us improve at a sport, surrounding ourselves with people who are growing in faith can encourage us to grow closer to God. Through the example of Solomon, we see that even great wisdom does not make us immune to the influence of those around us. This episode encourages listeners to consider whether the people they spend the most time with are helping them become who God is calling them to be, and to establish healthy boundaries when necessary to protect their faith and growth. Music: "Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Who Are You Becoming Like?
Proverbs 13:20 “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools suffers harm.”
Who you hang around with and spend your time with is so important. I know I have talked about this topic before, and yet I feel it is so important for us all to truly think about it, so I am going to talk about it again. I remember several years ago I told Tony that we needed more Catholic friends. He jokingly made a comment about how we should be accepting of everyone and not limit our circle to Catholic friends. I say jokingly because he knew I wasn’t saying we can only be friends with people who are Catholic. I will ask you what I asked him. If you want to be a really good tennis player, do you think it would be more helpful to hang out with other tennis players, or to hang out with soccer players? It would be more helpful to hang out with tennis players because they know what it takes to be good at tennis. Both groups of people are good people. You can learn a lot from both soccer players and tennis players. I am sure soccer players could help you learn discipline, sportsmanship, and lots of other great things. However, they will not be as much help becoming great at tennis as tennis players would. Do you see where I am going with this?
I don’t think everyone should surround themselves with people just like them. I don’t think you should only have one type of friend. I do think you should surround yourself with people who you look up to. I think you should spend the most time with those who have the same beliefs as you do. I think you should hang out with those who have similar values as you do. Jim Rohn said, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” Who you spend time with matters. There is another quote that says, “Show me your friends, and I will show you your future.” They both tell us the same thing: who we surround ourselves with is an important factor in who we become. Why is this? Why is it so important to be intentional about who we spend time with?
This is so important because we become like those we spend time with. When you hang out with people for long enough, you start to talk like them, and you start to act like them. If you are Christian and all of your friends are not, then you will probably start to compromise your beliefs to fit in. You may not even do it consciously. It will probably start off small. For instance, you will not mention something amazing that happened because you don’t want to mention God in front of the others. Or maybe you do mention something that happened, but you don’t attribute it to God; you casually say it was a coincidence, or you got lucky. It seems when we are Christians, and our friends are not, we go out of our way not to offend anyone. We don’t want to mention God because that may make them feel uncomfortable. I am so grateful I have several Christian friends, and so I can talk openly about my faith and not have to worry about offending anyone. However, I also have friends who are not Christian. I still love to hang out with them; we just keep it neutral when it comes to religion.
The verse above says, “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools suffers harm.” Have you ever heard the saying You want to buy the cheapest house in the most expensive neighborhood? I have heard something similar when it comes to choosing your friends. I have heard that if you are the smartest person in the room, you need to find a better room. We want to be surrounded by people that make us want to be better people. People who make us want to grow and learn. We will live up to or down to the expectations given to us. If we surround ourselves with people who don’t believe in us, we won’t think we can do very much. If everyone around us is perfectly content with staying where they are and they don’t want to grow, then growth will not be important to us either.
If you are listening to this podcast, it means you want to grow; you want to learn. That is awesome. Growth is so important. By starting your day off listening to me each morning, you are inviting me into your circle of influence. I am so grateful I get to be one of the people you spend time with. Who else do you spend time with? Are they helping you reach your goals? Are they helping you grow in your faith, or are they pulling you away from it? God continually told His people in the Old Testament that He set them apart from everyone else. He set them apart and told them they could not marry people who weren’t Israelites because God knows how hard it is to be surrounded by people who are different than you and to not join in their ways. Do you remember Solomon? He was one of the wisest men in the history of the Bible. God blessed him with Wisdom so he could rule the country. God had told his people they must not intermarry because they would surely turn their hearts toward other Gods. Solomon was very wise, and yet He continued to take wives from other religions. Solomon had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. If Solomon, who was given an abundance of wisdom straight from God, couldn’t resist the pull of his wives, what hope do we have?
If you want to grow in your faith, and you want to challenge yourself, then you need to carefully select who you spend the most time with. Some of us have family members that challenge our faith, or maybe make us feel we can’t do all we want to do. If this is the case, I am not saying you can never spend time with those family members. I do, however, think you should limit your time with anyone who doesn’t bring out the best in you. While it is true we don’t get to choose family, we do get to choose how much time we spend with them. We do get to choose how much influence those members of our family have on our lives. Set some boundaries if you need to. Protect what you are building. Protect your beliefs from those who wish to change them. How we live in this world determines how we spend eternity. Surround yourself with people who will help you live in a way that will help you spend an eternity it the presence of God. It will be worth it, I promise!
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we ask you to help us surround ourselves with those people who will help us grow in our faith. Help us to set boundaries for those who wish to change us. The enemy is always sending people into our lives; please help us to spot them and not let them change our beliefs. Help us to follow you always. Help us to be a good influence on those in our lives and help us to help bring others close to Christ. We love you Lord, you are truly amazing. We are grateful for all you do for us. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I would like to invite each one of you into my mentoring community. This is a new month, and the topic this month is “Created for a Purpose: Discovering God’s Plan for Your Life. Week 1 — You Were Created on Purpose, Week 2 — What Is My Purpose?, Week 3 — What Happens When Life Doesn't Go According to Plan? and Week 4 — Walking in God's Plan One Step at a Time. Is this the month you give mentoring a try? Is this the month where you decide to grow closer to the Lord with a small community of individuals who also want to grow closer to the Lord. There is a link in the show notes. I hope you will join us! I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Have a blessed day!
Today’s Word from the Lord was received in February 2026 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Hold my hand so you, in turn, can hold me, and I will proclaim that you are mine. Hold all that is dear to you and entrust it to me, for I will protect it, I will enrich it, I will give it back to you. Hold my hand, never doubt my love for you.”