The righteous choose their friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray. Proverbs 12:26
“Conversely, if someone desires change but is still hanging around people who work against that change, the risk is much greater. An addict must, for example, lose the phone numbers of his addict friends. A nonperformer must shun other nonperformers. In the same ways that we worry about whom our kids hang around with, we need to worry about it in the change process for adults as well. This is another good reason to prune the nonperformers out of a company, as other people “catch” the sickness. And it is a good reason for leaders to make sure that the people they are trying to develop spend a lot of time around high-performers.”
Henry Cloud in Necessary Endings: The Employees, Businesses, and Relationships That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Move Forward (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2011) 88.
Today’s post reads the opposite of yesterday. Yesterday we learned the healthy living is contagious. Today, we see that spending time with unhealthy people can cause us to catch the sickness.
So, like yesterday, I will ask you a question. Do you spend time with people who are not generous people? We might describe such people as materialistic, selfish, miserly, greedy, or worldly.
Stop for a moment and think about the people you spend time with. Do any of them demonstrate these traits. Again, make a list on a piece of paper or in your phone.
What would it look like to spend less time with those people this Lent. Again, Lent begins on 18 February 2026 (Ash Wednesday) to 5 April 2025 (Easter Sunday).
How would this shape your generosity? You become like the people you spend time with. Let’s go back to today’s Scripture. The righteous choose their friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.
Remember, in biblical terms, “righteous” means choosing God’s right path and “wicked” refers to those who do not choose God’s right pay. The people who spend time with influence us, toward generosity or away from it.
I am not telling you to isolate yourself from humans who may need to grow in this grace. I am merely inviting you to intentional social interaction this Lent for your growth.