Being a teenager is awesome! You have lots of new responsibilities, opportunities, and new people to meet. Going to public school can be scary though. Hundreds of new people that look different, smell different, and act different than you.
You might have friends from church, sports, school, etc., but you spend half of your time at a place that may not be your favorite, it’s called school. Although it may not be your favorite, you have to go to school, so it is very important to pick a good group of people to stick with. Your mom probably told you this already; “you are who you hang out with”, so make sure that you are picking good people to hang out with.
There are a few things that you should consider though, when choosing who’ll be your friends for life.
1. Make Sure They Aren’t Influencing You in a Bad Way: I have a large variety of friends. Some are from church, dance, school, and pretty much everywhere I spend my time. With all of them I have something in common, the activity we are doing. I have Christian and non-Christian friends, I just have to make sure that I’m not being influenced by my non-Christian friends in a negative way. Having non-Christian friends is good, you get to show them the love of Jesus, but if you aren’t careful, they can start influencing you. To make sure that this doesn’t happen, ask someone that you trust if you have been acting strange lately. If they say yes, then ask them what you have been doing. If what you have been doing is what your friends have been doing, then you should probably be careful with how much time you are spending with them. Don’t leave them; just limit your time with them.
2. Make Sure They Are Trustworthy: I have had friends before that I have told personal things to, and they stabbed me in the back with it. It is best to assume the best in people, but don’t just tell “anyone“ the treasures of you heart. Make sure that you can trust them with small things, before getting to the bigger things. If someone isn’t very trustworthy, don’t just throw them out. You can still be friends; you just don’t have to tell them things that are close to your heart. In the Bible it says, “do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to the pigs. If you do, they may trample them under your feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.” (Matthew 7:6, NIV)
3. Have Friends That Bring Out the Best in You: When making and choosing friends, it can be difficult. You may want to pick the most popular and pretty girls, but it’s what’s on the inside of a person that counts. Not organs! But who they are as a person. If they are trustworthy, and they don’t influence you in a bad way, make sure that they make you a better person. Make sure they push you to run harder after the Lord, bring out your personality in the best way, and that they help you through trials in life. If you want to know who your true friends are, hard seasons in life show you. If someone is negative and disrespectful towards you, then they probably aren’t the person you want to hang out with. If they make you a better person, then you may want to look into hanging with them more.
Make sure that you pick good people to be your besties, and when you’re a teenager, they can be vital to surviving, even having a good time in life. But having Jesus as your foundation for your friendship really helps, and makes being a teenager so much more fun!!
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