“You’re having lunch with three people you respect and admire. They all start criticizing a close friend of yours, not knowing that person is your friend. The criticism is distasteful and unjustified. What do you do? Verbally can you be the kind of friend you would hope your close friend would be in your defense?”* All I can say is that I hope I would have enough guts to point out the good of my close pal.
If peer pressure was strong (and I wished to be accepted by my contemporaries), there is an excellent chance I might remain silent.It would be at this time I would pray my outspoken (accept-me-as-I-am) nature would kick in to do the right thing. I would hope for nothing less than a good friend to (verbally) stand up for my credibility in a situation described in the above question.When Jesus was coming close to the end of His life here on earth, His disciple and friend Simon Peter denied Him three times in front of others.
Jesus had predicted this would happen. It had to be emotionally devastating for both individuals to be involved in such tense, scary situation (Luke 22:54-62, John 13:36-38).It’s not always pleasant (or easy) to do the right thing when it comes to others. You may constantly find yourself in moments of intense strife (because of your sense of justice).
Your reputation of being a do-gooder (or even a follower of Christ) could cause people to act differently in a positive manner with no profanity or course jokes around you. On the negative side, individuals might backfire with snide comments in your presence. No matter what; you should always do the right thing no matter what the consequences could be.
*Adapted from 50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind by Marc Chernoff (www.marcandangel.com)
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