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 NIV

I wonder if the writer of this proverb wrote it today, what might be included in things that can snare us, snare our soul, our personhood. 

Would it be the influence of social media on our lives, on what is important, of what beautiful looks like, the danger of not measuring up to some social ideal?

Would it be the ideas of our age, how they can capture us into thinking they are the only way to live, that their values are paramount?

Would it be the normalisation of violence and abuse in our homes?

Would it be the belief that change is not possible, that hope is not real?

The world is a complex place and this proverb acknowledges the challenges, and quietly reminds us that we do have the power to choose. 

The power to choose who we spend time with, to limit time with those people who are toxic, to ask for help.

We get to limit our exposure to media, social media, we get to read as broadly as we want, and we get to line up our thinking, our choices, our hearts with God's word for us. 

My go-to recently has been Eph 4:1-3. 

What's yours?

We get to choose.

#proverbs

#wisdom

#somethingtochewon