Whoever Walks with the Wise, Becomes Wise

It's not a matter of if you are being influenced, it's a matter of who is influencing you. As I mentioned in my first post, you become like the people you spend time with. This could work to your benefit, or to your detriment.

Televisions, Twitter feeds, and all that other stuff, have created more noise in our heads than ever before. Most of it is corrosive to our well-being. You are being bombarded with destructive messages on a daily basis. Many of them are already established in our minds. We are conditioned, so that just seeing an image on a billboard can trigger a number of unhealthy thoughts and feelings. These messages are carefully crafted, not to help you, but to sell something or someone. This subtle attack is unavoidable if you live anywhere near civilization. You may not be able to stop the noise, but you can counteract it.

It says in the Proverbs "Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm" (Proverbs 13:20). If you don't seek out the wise, you will inevitably fall in with the fools. If you don't find positive input to feed your mind, you will only have the negativity. Counteract the noise by reading constructive books. Read the Proverbs. It may seem arbitrary and boring at times, but it was written to make you wiser, healthier, and stronger.

Be intentional about what voices you allow into your life. Don't let entertainers and professionals push their way in just because they are noisy, interesting, or fun (which seems to be a dominant business strategy on social media these days). Most of these people don't care about you, they just want your money or your support. Choose to surround yourself with the wise, and become wiser yourself. "The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life..." (Proverbs 10:11). Look for these people.

Do you have any strategies for keeping out the unhealthy noise? Please share them below in the comments section.