It's Who You Know

 

“Like a bad tooth or a foot out of joint, so is confidence in an unfaithful person at the time of trouble.”  Proverbs 25:19

 You’re not going to believe what I did this morning. I got a root canal. Yep, I had a bad tooth. In addition to that, I have two permanently sprained ankles due to a connective tissue disorder. So, I really get what this verse is communicating!

 How do you determine who is a trustworthy, faithful person? When we’re evaluating a business, we can go online to Trust Pilot or Yelp. When I’m buying something, I always check the ratings. But when it comes to people, we don’t have the same tools.

 Some of our understanding is going to come from our past experiences with them. Do they follow through with what they say they will do? Do they show up when they say they will? Do they leave you holding the check unexpectedly? History shows character. You’ve also got the old adage, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!” Typically, we can get to know a person through experience.

Beyond that, though, I think we need to trust the Holy Spirit to guide us. Several years ago, I wanted to go through the book, Boundaries*, with someone. I prayed about it and God brought to my mind two people that I didn’t know very well. They seemed like nice people, but we hadn’t spent a lot of time together. The thing is, we can trust the Holy Spirit implicitly, and if He says to do a study with someone, you do the study with them! I’ve got to say I can’t think of two better people in the world for me to have gone through that book with in that season of my life, they were a perfect fit! I learned and grew so much and a great deal of it is because of those two special ladies in my life.

Here’s the Thing: Ultimately, people are always going to let you down though. God is the only one who never will. Sometimes we will experience the pain of an unfaithful person. It sucks, but it teaches us. We grow through it, maybe even because of it. The thing is, you really don’t want to be that unfaithful person! I would really hate to be thought of as someone’s toothache of a friend!

* I’m an Amazon associate and if you purchase something through this link I will receive a small commission. This does not change your price at all, it just helps support what I do at the Salty Zebra Blog!

 

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