You are who you surround yourself with.

I've struggled a lot recently with the types of friends I have...who I'm surrounding myself with, yadda yadda yadda.

One of the verses that cleared up a lot of questions I had on this subject was:

"Bad company corrupts good morals." -1 Corinthians 15:33

 This may seem silly, but to be honest, I didn't really understand what this verse was truly saying until maybe 6 months ago.

As a child, I always thought, "When I'm a teenager I'm not going to make any silly mistakes. I'm going to hang out with the right crowd and I'm never going to do anything I regret."
Let me just say, I could not have been more wrong.

While I wish I could have held true to my original high expectations for myself, I must admit that I am human, and I have way more faults than I would like to admit to anyone.
However, my mistakes have made me more and more grateful for Jesus.

Most of my mistakes have unfortunately taken place because of the people I have surrounded myself with.
Now, I'm not saying that any of these people "MADE ME" do anything. Nobody "MAKES" anyone do anything because we all have our own minds and we are all capable of making our own decisions.
What I am saying, though, is that you choose what and who you surround yourself with.

If you befriend people that drink, for example, you are making a decision for yourself, that says it's okay to be around alcohol.
Next thing you know, your friends have persuaded you that it's not as bad as you think, and you begin to shut God out for a little while.
You think to yourself "The Bible only says not to get drunk."
And so you take a couple drinks, but you don't get drunk.
What you may have overlooked, is that the Bible also says, "Abstain from all evil." 1 Thessalonians 5:22.

So what you missed was right under your nose.
But you probably never even thought about it, because everyone else around you was doing it.
Obviously, I pulled that example from the top of my head but it's easily relate-able to many other subjects.

A good rule of thumb in my mind is, if they're not helping you get to heaven, it's probably not such a good idea to hang around them very much.

BUT you have to know who you are and who you want to be along with what morals and values you have.
Because not every one you meet in life that you don't necessarily agree with is avoidable.
(Which makes studying your Bible a good idea so you know what to believe, why to believe it, and how to explain to other people why you believe it ;))

If you're a teenager out there like me or even an adult, and you're still waiting around for good friends be patient.
PRAY PRAY PRAY.
I seriously thought I was never ever going to find any friends that had the same morals and values as I do, but as we all know, God's timing is perfect and he blessed me with a friend just like me.

Thanks for listening to me ramble about my jumbled thoughts today friends!
If you have any words of wisdom on how to wisely pick your friends, please leave them in the comments below!
I would love to hear them!