My brother in-law Ted Phillips is one smart guy who I respect and love greatly. We were having lunch today and he said something that was very insightful and so very true.
He said you could take a race horse and hook him up to a plow and keep him in that environment and the horse would eventually think he was a plow horse.
The next time you are with the wrong crowd and you know you are with the wrong crowd, let this race horse image be clear in your mind. You need to quit letting yourself become the person you don’t want to be.
On the human side, it is about putting yourself in the right environment in order to reach your potential. I heard a guy say one time that you will be in five years based on the books you read and the people you surround yourself with. That statement is mostly correct, but God can and has done great things in people’s lives even thought they were in the wrong environment. Children have come from bad home situations and went on to accomplish great things and people have been with the wrong crowd and come through that time period to be what God intended them to be.
I remember some years ago that I had a set of friends from church that were not healthy for me to be around. They were complainers, they talked about other people, basically 9-5ers at work and they were lazy. I began to move away from them and began spending much less time with them because I instinctively knew that they were not good for me.
Let’s take it a step further and use some very simple examples we all know. If you hang around people who drink, you will drink. If you hand around people who do drugs, lie, cheat and steal, you will do drugs, lie cheat and steal. It really is that simple in life. This does not mean you can’t have a cup of coffee with a friend who is a bonehead without becoming a bonehead. That is not what I am saying. I am saying that if you desire to spend a lot of time and be around only boneheads, you may just find yourself one day being a bonehead.
Let’s do another easy lay-up. You as a parent are very careful about who you let your children spend time with. Maybe even your parents talked to you about who you were spending time with? It really is a simple thing to understand yet we as adults somehow believe we are not influenced by the people we spend time with. Go figure.
The power of association is a very important area of our consciousness and we all need to be aware of its existence and the quite hold it can take on your life before you knowing it.
It has been said that small minded people talk about other people, average minded people talk about things, and strong minded people talk about hope, plans, and ideas. I believe that is very true.
Ok class, it is time for the quiz on what you have read here today. Ha.
You know what I am saying. Be careful who you let close to you and your family and your children because it is very important to choose to be around people that speak of hope, plans, ideas, dreams, health and being all that God intended for them to be. So don’t look up one day and find yourself behind a plow when you really should have been a race horse. KT