The Road Trip of Life Part 2

The last couple of weeks, my pastor has doing a series called Road Trip: The Road we Take. I have found his message to be very insightful and I wanted to share the message the best I could on this blog because I have been quite moved by the message.

No matter what you religious views are I am sure that you will find something in this message that will help you in your journey through life.

If you missed the first post please make sure to read it first at http://www.lifetosuccess.com/2010/09/19/the-road-trip-of-life-part-1/

Now on to Part 2: Traveling companions…

Have you ever been on a road trip with someone and you had the best time of your entire life up to that point?

How about being on that road trip with someone that when it was over you practically sprinted from the car because the trip was absolutely the worst experience ever because of the person you were with?

Well our life road trip is no different then that… there are people in our lives that help us grow and challenge us that we are happy to be with whenever we get the chance and then there are those that we dread every minute before getting into their presence. With family, friends and co-workers, I guess this is just a natural way of life.

But…

There are things that we can do to make better choices about our traveling companions. Here is a short list of things to consider:

1. “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” Proverbs 13:20 – It is extremely important to watch who we let into our lives. If we are to grow as human beings, it is extremely important to make sure that we are around people that are getting positive results in their lives.

Don’t confuse “intention” with “results” when you are examining who you are around. You want to be around people who are truly getting results in their lives. These people will challenge you to do the same with your life and you will be influenced by their ability to get results and if you start to emulate their example, you will also find yourself getting positive results in your life as well.

This does not mean that you turn your back on those with the “right” intentions because with being a proper example in their lives, they can soon be getting the positive results in their lives as well.

We need to have a balance in our lives, we need people who will help us grow and just as important people that we can help grow.

2. Special Notes for Parents: It is YOUR responsibility to make sure that you kids are with good people in their lives – It is extremely important that we don’t let our children hang out with whoever they want. They will be highly influenced by those that they hang around with. This is an area that we can not neglect.

Sometimes this will make your children unhappy. But better to have a unhappy child then to have a wrongly influenced child. The unhappiness will go away but the wrong influence can effect them for the rest of their lives.

3. You will be identified by the company that you keep – You may be the greatest person in the world but if you hang around with people who are not making great things happen in their lives or worse yet people who are destroying their lives, your reputation will be that of the company that you keep.

“Guilt by association.” If this is true then the opposite is true as well.

4. Your friendships determine what you are becoming – Your friends are an influence in your life. This is a fact. You will be nudged by your friends in the direction they are heading. This is a good things if your friends are focused on getting positive results in their lives and helping others.

But it is not so good if they don’t take responsibility for the results they get in their lives and blame those around them for their failures. This will eventually bleed into your way of thinking and you will be influenced by it.

In the next post I will be examining this in a little further detail… I hope you have found this post useful!

As Always, Here’s to Your LifetoSuccess,

John Clark