tough stuff.

Having to make choices each day is sometimes a task that can be daunting but other times it is a task that we don't even realize we are making. Choosing to surround yourself with people that are like-minded enough to lift you up and encourage you but all the while are different enough to challenge you to be a better human being and better disciple of Christ is a fine line that falls somewhere in an area that I am still trying to master.

Those moments come in and out of our lives every day to rise above the call of this world and to stand out. Sometimes, though, choices have to be made to separate yourself and your life from those people who suck every breath from you like a vacuum. These people are not in and of themselves bad, and are generally functional to be around in public, but to choose to put yourself in their presence for an extended period of time privately, so that their thinking becomes your thinking and their actions become your actions, leads to destruction within your soul and spirit. These are the people that you must tactfully find a way to avoid at all costs while still maintaining a civil and Godly demeanor. This is the toughest task.

To accomplish this task is to win one in the category of growth for you and to do it with grace and tact is to win one in the category of being more like Jesus. To influence others positively and to lift them up but to not be influenced by this world.

Tough stuff.