The Quiet Spread of Influence (Or, What Moldy Strawberries Taught Me About Friendship)

A morning reflection on friendship, faith, and formation

It’s 6:53 am on a Monday morning and I just finished reading my Bible for the morning and I began to pray. This is something I just recently started doing - praying after my Bible reading to start my day. While I prayed I paused for a moment and had a vision of these strawberries that we had in the fridge for a couple of weeks that had gone bad. Not the whole carton was covered in mold but about 25% of them were so we just decided to throw them all away. I could have totally removed the moldy ones and salvaged the others, but I didn’t want to take a chance.

This made me think - that carton of strawberries could easily be compared to a group of friends and the process of mold spreading from one strawberry to the surrounding strawberries cold be compared to the process of how we become like those we surround ourselves with.

This is why it’s so important who we choose to associate with on a daily basis. Who we surround ourselves with affects us mentally, spiritually and sometimes even physically.

Here are some verses from the Bible about this topic:

• “Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” - 1 corinthians 15:33

• “Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.” - Proverbs 13:20

• “Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared.” - Proverbs 22:24-25

• “The righteous choose their friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.” - Proverbs 12:26

• “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers.” - Psalms 1:1