In Contact With Others
I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts. Psalm 119:63.
It is natural to seek companionship. Everyone will find companions or make them. And just in proportion to the strength of the friendship, will be the amount of influence which friends will exert over one another for good or for evil....
Young persons who are thrown into one another's society may make their association a blessing or a curse. They may edify, bless, and strengthen one another, improving in deportment, in disposition, in knowledge; or, by permitting themselves to become careless and unfaithful, they may exert only a demoralizing influence.73Testimonies for the Church 4:587, 655.
It is by leading the followers of Christ to associate with the ungodly and unite in their amusements, that Satan is most successful in alluring them into sin.... The followers of Christ are to separate themselves from sinners, choosing their society only when there is opportunity to do them good. We cannot be too decided in shunning the company of those who exert an influence to draw us away from God. While we pray, “Lead us not into temptation,” we are to shun temptation, so far as possible.74Patriarchs and Prophets, 458, 459.
By the choice of evil companions many have been led step by step from the path of virtue into depths of disobedience and dissipation to which at one time they would have thought it impossible for them to sink.75Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 224.
We may refuse to be corrupted, and place ourselves where evil association shall not corrupt our hearts. Individually the youth should seek for association with those who are toiling upward with unfaltering steps.76Messages to Young People, 423.
Better than all the friendship of the world is the friendship of Christ's redeemed.77Christ's Object Lessons, 374.
The warmth of true friendship, the love that binds heart to heart, is a foretaste of the joys of heaven.78The Ministry of Healing, 360.
From The Faith I Live By - Page 234
The Faith I Live By