"He who walks with the wise will become wise..."
~ Proverbs 13:20
The five people you spend the most time with?
I imagine you've heard the quote by Jim Rohn. “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”
Of course, King Solomon gave us similar advice long before Mr. Rohn walked the earth. And, the research backs it up.
Spend time with successful people, and your likelihood of becoming successful at whatever you're up to increases dramatically.
That's not always money by the way.
Do you want to be a master of humankindness?
I certainly do.
So, who is my person among the five people I spend the most time with that helps to shape me in pursuit of that success?
Yeshua, the Son of YHWH.
Yes, I count Him as one of the five people I spend the most time with, because I do and I want to become successful in the ways He instructed us to live and modeled for us to live.
Sometimes walking with the wise can be easier said than done. Maybe there's a role model out there for you who isn't in your direct circle.
That's okay. There are ways.
Jesus may not be sitting across from me in corporeal form, but I still spend time with Him, reading His words, hearing His wisdom, and He still shapes who I choose to be day by day, as well as who I make an effort to become as I grow.
The same can happen with role models of other kinds. Surround yourself with their wisdom. Be sure they actually have something you want in your life first, but then go to town. Listen to them, read, watch, immerse.
This all started because I was wandering through the Old Testament, as I so often do, and came across the stories of Manasseh and Josiah.
When we meet Manasseh, we learn that "...he did evil in the sight of the LORD..." (2 Kings 21:2.) We're talking abominations, so much innocent blood that he fills Jerusalem from one end to the other, "making" Judah to sin. He was a mess, in the Lord's sight. (That's the Mercedes translation.)
But, by the end of his life, we see things change.
2 Chronicles 33:12 tells us, "And in his distress, Manasseh sought the favor of the LORD his God and earnestly humbled himself before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God."
He turns his eyes to the Father. He turns his heart, and he is changed.
With all of the ways I fail in this world, a story like Manasseh's is such a comfort to me. In a way, he too, with all his failings, is a role model for me as well.
May we all turn and learn and grow, where the Father would have us turn and learn and grow.
And then there's Josiah.
From a young age, he was practically perfect in every way. The ESV translation says, "... while he was yet a boy, he began to seek the God of David..."
Granted, he still had his moments of supreme humanness, but he did a darn good job over the course of his life.
People like that, I look toward as examples... not in the unhealthy comparison kind of way, but in a, gee, if he did it, maybe I can be better, too kind of way.
And for all the rest, all the places where I am less than I'd like to be, less than I am expected or commanded to be, thank goodness for grace.
Thank goodness that when we do our best, the Father does the rest.
He meets us where we are. What an unbelievable blessing!!
May we learn from the role models. May we do our very best. And, may we receive grace and His help for the rest.
Who knows, perhaps one day someone will be looking to you to learn and shape and mold and emulate along their own path.
Abba Father,
Thank You for putting the right people in our path. Whether it's through Your Book, or in living and breathing life. Thank You for guiding us and shaping us through the people in our lives.
And, thank You for the gift of grace. Thank You that Your mercies are new each morning.
Thank You for helping us to have the wisdom and discernment to know which voices to heed (something maybe Josiah could have improved upon,) and which influences to avoid, or even downright rebuke.
We love You. We choose You. We trust You. We need You.
All this we pray in the name of Your Son,
Amen
"Remember those leading you, who spoke the word of God to you, of whom, considering the outcome of their way of life, you are to imitate the faith." ~ Hebrews 13:7
"For I gave you a pattern, that as I did to you, you also should do." ~ John 13:15
"In everything, show yourself to be an example by doing good works. In your teaching show integrity, dignity, and wholesome speech that is above reproach, so that anyone who opposes us will be ashamed to have nothing bad to say about us." ~ Titus 2:7-8
May the Good Lord bless you and keep you, friends... always, in all ways. Amen.
Bonus song of praise... ♥
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