Weekly Impressions - Friends

Proverbs 13:20

“He who walks with wise men will be wise,
But the companion of fools will suffer harm.”

The friends you surround yourself with really matter.  You’re in trouble if they don’t help to build you up in Christ.  I didn’t realize how much this truly mattered until I found a couple of friends who also enjoyed playing video games AND still kept a Christ-like attitude when we were doing poorly.  It really does make all the difference in the world, and helps to point out where my focus lies.

I am eight years younger than my brother and six years younger than my sister.  My sister didn’t play games with me very much, but my brother enjoyed it.  Being eight years older, however, he had a tendency to beat me - A LOT.  It was very discouraging until I realized that winning wasn’t the point.  The point was to play and have fun spending time with my older brother.  That didn’t mean that I stopped trying to win - which meant that I learned a lot fairly quickly - but it did mean that I wasn’t sacrificing my sanity, happiness, and (most importantly) my relationship with my brother.   

However, it is a very rare thing in the video gaming world to find someone with that same philosophy.  Winning is everything, and you’re wasting your time if you don’t win.  (Of course, that’s not just the video gaming world, but that’s where I personally encounter it.)  I struggled for a very long time playing with this crowd, because many are sore losers as a result, and they end up tying their worth into winning.  They don’t think so, and it doesn’t appear that way at first, but as I explored why I was having a hard time with it, I realized that it was a worth issue.  

It took a couple of Christian friends with an entirely different attitude for me to realize just how much I had fallen in with that philosophy, even though I was aware of it.  You really do become more like those you hang out with.  (Sometimes I seem not to take the Bible seriously enough.  It isn’t like I wasn’t warned.)  I am incredibly thankful for the friends God has given me to ensure that I keep my focus on Him.