Who Am I
Influenced By?
As
Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart
was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had
been. 1 Kings 11:4 (NIV)
One day a farmer grabbed his shot gun to
shoot at a flock of pesky crows. Unfortunately, he didn’t see his sociable
parrot that had joined the crows. After firing a few shots, he walked over to
the fallen birds and was surprised to find his parrot badly ruffled with a
broken wing. When the farmer’s children saw the injured bird, they asked, “Dad,
what happened?” The farmer simply replied, “Bad company.”
Who do you spend time with? What do you
like to do in your spare time? Who has had the greatest impact on your life?
Who do you go to when you need advice? What do all these questions have in
common? The answer is influence. A simple definition of influence is the power to
affect. Whether you are consciously aware of this or not, the people you
surround yourself with, the activities that you are interested in, and what you
watch and listen to all have an influence on you. Influence can be either positive
or negative. Unfortunately for King Solomon, he found out the hard way the
damage that can be caused by allowing the wrong things to have an influence in
your life.
Solomon had all the ingredients necessary
for a long and successful reign as king, but in the end, he traded in the wisdom of God
for the foolishness of the world. Solomon’s failure and fall can be attributed
to the negative influence he allowed his wives to have on him. God warned
Solomon as a king not to multiply his wives, yet Solomon did anyway. The result
was Solomon was poisoned by his passions. His lust for women opened the door
for their idolatrous worship to take root in his heart.
Who we spend our time with and what we
spend our time doing will determine the direction our lives will go. So let’s stay
focused on God and allow Him to have the most influence on our life so that we
too may influence others on our journey.
My life shall touch a dozen lives before this day is
done;
Leave countless marks for good or ill, ere sets the
evening sun.
This is the wish I always wish, the prayer I always
pray:
Lord, may my life help other lives it touches by the
way.
(Source Unknown)
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