Comments on: Changing Your Friends

By: Stanley Bronstein

Stanley Bronstein — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:14:52 +0000

While I was out walking this morning, I called a friend and gave him a “kick in the butt” he probably needed. . .

Take care and please keep commenting. I’d love to hear your thoughts as these meditations continue.

Stanley Bronstein

By: rodney grubbs

rodney grubbs — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:55:35 +0000

Stanley, You beat me to option number 3. Sometimes it is just our moral responsibility as a friend to drag ‘em where they need to be. Whether that is to an exercise class or a simple Christmas concert, putting people into a good, different environment may turn on a light for them to want to change. It is our duty. Keep the great meditations coming. – Rodney

By: Stanley Bronstein

Stanley Bronstein — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:44:49 +0000

As I thought about today’s meditation, I came up with a third way of looking at things.

WAY #1 was – A normal part of friendship is for friends to “influence each other” to change. That’s how we grow.

WAY #2 was – If our friends are not willing to grow; if they are not willing to change, then we should go out and find new friends. After all, we are deeply influences by the people around us and if we have the wrong ones around us, then we need to get away from them, as they would be a negative influence.

NOW, HERE’S WAY #3 – If they truly are our friends AND we truly are their friend, then we might have an obligation to stick by them and influence them to change. This might require us to literally drag them, kicking and screaming, to the point of change, but perhaps that is what we should do.

Personally, I don’t think any one of these 3 ways of looking at it are controlling. I think we need to examine our friendships on a case by case basis and act accordingly.

So, I ask you.

1) WHO ARE YOUR GOOD FRIENDS WHO HELP YOU GROW?

2) WHO ARE THE FRIENDS YOU NEED TO JETTISON FROM YOUR LIFE?

3) WHO ARE YOUR GOOD FRIENDS THAT MAY NOT BE HELPING YOU TO GROW, BUT WHOM YOU SHOULD “KICK IN THE BUTT” IN ORDER TO HELP THEM GROW?

By: Randy Nichols

Randy Nichols — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:29:31 +0000

I discovered your homepage by coincidence.
Very interesting posts and well written.
I will put your site on my blogroll.