NOT EVERYONE IS YOUR FRIEND
Proverbs
22:24-25 Make no friendship with a man given
to anger, nor go with a wrathful man, lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself
in a snare.
Have you ever seen an entire
oyster shell without an oyster in it? You may have wondered how the oyster got
out. If you looked closely at the shell you might find a very small hole at the
top. This hole is made by a whelk. This ocean creature has an appendage that
acts like a drill. The whelk is able to use this to bore holes into the oyster
shell and then suck the oyster out through the hole, little by little. Through
a small whole in the shell, a whelk can do great harm and cause death.
Very often, we allow another
person’s angry outbursts, their critical remarks, or their cynical comments to
bore a hole into our good nature and rob us or our otherwise sunny
dispositions. If we are not careful, we can become irritated to the point where
genuine anger and bitterness begin to develop within us. And when that happens,
we are in very real danger of experiencing disease, disharmony and discord.
One of the best things you
can do is simply to avoid those people whom you find irksome, continually
critical, or habitually angry at life, as well as those who seem to delight in
needling you all the time. In other words, stay out of the way of whelks. Jesus
said that if you hand causes you to sin, then cut it off. If certain people are
dragging you down into THEIR pit, cut them off to access in your life. You will
find yourself experiencing a healthier and happier life again.