Bad Company Corrupts

[Jaaniya]

I'm a 21 year old girl. I have great people in my life but I also have ... people in my life that make me uncomfortable because their lifestyles are so different. they like to party & drink. I don't easily give in to peer pressure nor am I easily influenced but I feel uncomfortable having these people in my life. I can say no so many times to party invites but its just so annoying when people won't stop even though they know you're going to say no. & you can't just break up with friends....or at least i can't because i don't have the guts to do that to someone. And yea i know it might be rude on my part to even think about that. but I was just wondering....where is God in this? Can he keep these people away from me? I know he can if he wants but if he doesn't......what do i do?

[Athanasius]

I'm a 21 year old girl. I have great people in my life but I also have ... people in my life that make me uncomfortable because their lifestyles are so different. they like to party & drink. I don't easily give in to peer pressure nor am I easily influenced but I feel uncomfortable having these people in my life. I can say no so many times to party invites but its just so annoying when people won't stop even though they know you're going to say no.

Have you gone about explaining this to them? If you haven't, then perhaps you should; if not...

& you can't just break up with friends....or at least i can't because i don't have the guts to do that to someone.

Then you do this - you 'break up' with your friends. After all, what sort of friends put someone, who they call their friend, through this? If they are your friends, they should understand, if not, I'd choose a word other than 'friend(s)' to describe these people by.

And yea i know it might be rude on my part to even think about that. but I was just wondering....where is God in this? Can he keep these people away from me? I know he can if he wants but if he doesn't......what do i do?

Is your hope, then, that God will keep these people away from you so you don't have to approach them and end your friendship? I dare say, then, that you should end the friendship. And maybe that is where God 'is', teaching you lessons; that he isn't some invisible wonder worker who will make all the hard decisions for you. So the way I see it, you have three options:

1. Approach your friends and tell them what's on your mind / heart
2. Depending on how this goes, continue to endure your friends
3. Or, depending on how this goes, end your friendship

As with all things, you're a witness for Christ - but that does not mean at the cost of your own holiness.

[Dani H]

You're going to have to learn to stand up for your convictions.

Meaning that if you choose to not go party with someone, and they take offense to that, then that's on them, not you.

A friendship you have on somebody else's terms, isn't a friendship. At all. It takes two people to be friends. If somebody cannot respect your convictions enough to stop badgering you, then that person isn't your friend but merely an acquaintance and "partying buddy".

Speaking of partying buddy ... if you have more maturity than those partying people, I suggest you leave them behind to grow up another day, and look for friends at your own maturity level who are actually your equals.

Don't be afraid of letting people go, and of letting the past go. People come and go. That's life. It's okay. God will bring new people into your life to walk the road with you that you're actually on, instead of trying to drag you over to where they're at while they're offroading and getting caught in rocks and shrubbery, still trying to figure out where the road actually is.

God isn't going to "keep people away from you". You have to learn to handle your own relationships, draw your own boundaries, and stand up for who you are and what you believe in. Once you do that, God will back you up. Because then you will be acting on faith instead of fear and avoidance.

You can do it. I have faith in you.

[gringo300]

I, myself, am at the point where I have come to realize that I have to drop at least one so-called "friend". I have already stopped considering him a friend- I just haven't told him so yet.

There's a second person I'm also close to dropping.