0:00Episode 4205, The Company You Keep. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Mom's, it's time to rediscover, rejuvenate, and renew whom you are in mind, body, and spirit. Welcome to Create Your Now, Your Best Selfie. The show that help you do just that. Here's your host, certified life coach, personal trainer, and nutritionist, Christian Wardo. Happy every day. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. I pray that you will allow Jesus to meet you right where you are. God wants to hold your heart, not just your hand. The Company You Keep. For those of you who are brand-new to Create Your Now, welcome to This We Go To A Family. I am so delighted of your presence. If you already haven't had the opportunity, you will and I head over to CreateYourNow.com where you can learn more and sign up for the Kisses newsletter. They keep it simple strategy, everyday solutions, to live, love, and impact.

1:03Why pray that you've had a beautiful week and you're ready to go into another beautiful week. But I know sometimes we look at that beauty and say, hmm, depends. By what rules do you say is beautiful? What is a scorecard? How do you rank this? One to five, one to ten, ABCDEFG. What is the report card? Sometimes in our seasons and when we're walking in our journeys, we kind of not just stumble but we hit the cycle. And it's like, why can't we get out of where we are? It's like, no, not the same things happening, but there's always something happening. And yes, people would say, well, you know what, that's kind of life isn't it? Christian, it is, except when it's the same ordeal where there's still always pressure and like, when can I come up for air? Like, I just can't keep trying to hold my breath, knowing that we'll wait.

2:04How long is this going to take? Another three months? I will wait. How much longer now? And now we're in this for six or eight months. And you begin to wonder, okay, Lord, hello. What's happening? I know it's been a crazy week, beautiful weekend, and now we're looking forward to another great week ahead. But I got to tell you, there's been a lot of ups and downs and hills and valleys in all of it. We've been celebrating birthdays already. The month of October, the month of September towards the end of it is very, very much a huge celebration, lots and lots and lots of birthdays for our family. And it's wonderful because it kind of kicks off our fall. It starts with my husband and really it starts with our anniversary. But when we start with birthdays, it's really September, all in and going full speed ahead. And it's kind of like that new year, feel, right? Because it's the start of the school year two. And so, man, we just keep ramping up. And so having the parties, eating the sweets, celebrating someone's life, that's fabulous.

3:08But what about those times where you start to pay the bills? What about those times when your AC goes out? Oh, wait, that's RAC. Oh, yeah, I'm actually recording this in 84 degree weather on the inside of my house. Mm-hmm, not kidding at all. It's in moments like those where you sit back and you're like, okay, Lord, when is enough enough? Right? The oak tree fell. The delayed of the sale. Then we're still waiting on the roof because of supplies. Copper is expensive. We got to find the right copper, enough of it. And they don't just like pull it out of the ground and say, here you go. There's a lot of stepping stones. There's a lot of things that comes to moving, right? We're moving and transitioning from one state to another state. Closure to that. What does that look like? Birthdays, celebrations, weddings. I mean, you name it. It's all there. And then you think, but why is all this other stuff always happening?

4:09Like, can we not just come up for like three days? Lord, give me three days. And then maybe I'll be ready for the next extravaganza that you have in store for me, right? Well, it is one of those things and unfortunately, those are the hills on the valleys. And that's what life is all about. That's the journey that we're on, right? One step at a time leads to miles of greatness. That doesn't mean your miles going to happen right now, right this moment. You have to take it in. You have to fill your cup with what you can. And so I really want you to think about who you're hanging out with. Because there's this old saying that you become like the five people you spend the most time with. Maybe you've heard about it. I have. And while that might sound like something from a self-help book on a clearance rack, there's actually deep, biblical truth tucked inside it. The company you keep matters more than most of us are willing to admit. And it's not because the people around us to find us,

5:09but because they shape the atmosphere we breathe. The thoughts we entertain, the steps we're willing to take. And if we're serious about walking in wisdom, we have to be honest about who's walking beside us. Hmm. Food for thought. Proverbs 13 verse 20, love this verse. Walk with the wise and become wise for a companion of fools, sufferers harm. There's no gray area there. No wiggle room. The company you keep doesn't just affect your mood on a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday afternoon. It affects the trajectory of your life. Wisdom isn't only something we read or study. Wisdom is something we absorb through proximity. We catch it the way we catch courage by being close to someone who carries it. And then Paul echoes the truth centuries later in his letter to the Corinthians, right? Do not be misled.

6:11Bad company corrupts good character. He wasn't writing to people living recklessly. He was writing to believers. People who loved God, but were being slowly pulled off course by the voices around them. That's the part that should make us pause to take that breath and say, okay, where do I fit into all of this? What's my circle? Who am I a part of? You don't have to abandon your faith to drift from it. Sometimes you just have to surround yourself with people who quietly make it easier, not to grow. Sometimes it's more fun, not to go to church every Sunday or every Saturday night. Sometimes it's fun not to have a small group. Sometimes it's fun not to do anything that you think, oh man, community and believers and yeah, you know, I'm just good with online stuff. I'm just good. Obviously that's a decision you personally have to make, but it is something that I do believe

7:15that we need to be in community somehow some way. I see us here, creature, now a community. Do we act like a church? No, do I call us a church? No, but we're a family and we're doing life together in a very unique manner. So now let's talk about Ruth for a moment because her story is one of the most beautiful pictures of what it looks like to choose your company wisely. You know, when Naomi told her daughters-in-law to go back to their families, it would have been perfectly reasonable for Ruth to leave. She had every right, every logical reason. Orpah kissed Naomi goodbye and turned around and nobody blamed her, but Ruth, on the other hand, Ruth held on tighter. She said, where you go, I will go and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God, my God. It wasn't about loyalty. It was wisdom wrapped in love. Ruth looks at Naomi, right?

8:15Do you remember who Naomi is? A grieving widow with empty hands and a broken heart. And she didn't see a liability. Ruth saw a woman whose faith had weathered the storm. She saw someone worth walking with. And that decision, that one holy choice to stay close to a wise woman, change the entire course of Ruth's life. It led her to Bethlehem. It led her to Boaz. It led her to her lineage of Jesus Christ. I mean, really, when you stop and let that sink in, I mean, talk about who's getting little chills. That's something to think about. Ruth didn't end up in the genealogy of our Savior because she had a five-year plan. She ended up there because she chose the right company. She attached herself to someone whose life pointed toward God and God honored that.

9:18So here's a question. And this question I really want you to think about. I don't want you to pop. Like, there's the answer, Kristian. I'm done. Okay, got to go now. I got to go watch my football. I get it. I want to watch my football too. But we also need to be able to really understand where God has us going. And I've been doing a lot of deep searching lately. Because let me tell you, those hills and valleys, I'm on them every single day. I think I hit about four valleys and maybe a hilltop in a day. So I'm really more in the valleys than I am on the hilltop. And that's not always easy to keep going and to keep going and to keep going. And then you get the little things called life that come in that really well people would say, oh, well, Kristian, you know, the AC doesn't have anything to do with the Bible. Yeah, you're right. But it has everything to do with my character. Has everything to do with how I react to the situation, how I show up. Even though we have a party to go to and I'm sweating,

10:18cats and dogs, which okay, how do you sweat cats and dogs? Doesn't make sense. It looks like I just came in from a trench or rain down poor. But I shouldn't complain and I should enjoy the company of whom we're celebrating. But oh, wait, wait, it's all about me, right? So yeah, I'm going to complain about the AC and do all of this. I can't do that. You see, that's when the little things in life, it shows up in how you're handling the bigger thing in life. Who you're walking with. Who's you belong to? Who you're choosing? So that's my question. Who are you walking with? And I don't want you to think about your contact list. Right? Not who you waive to at church or laugh with at brunch or, you know, when you're hanging out at the PTO parties or when you're going to the games and maybe you're one who likes a tailgate, whatever it is, I'm not talking about all those.

11:20Who are the people shaping your inner world? Who do you call when the bottom falls out? My good friend Dan Miller, who's a good friend, a mentor, a coach. We lost him a few years back and blessed to know him and his wife, Joanne, both precious, very special people. And he would always ask, who's your 3am phone call? Something happens. Who's on that list? Well, if he was here with us, he would have been one of those on my list. His wife is too. Who's your 3am list? Who's voice plays on repeat in your head when you're making a hard decision? You talk about the little birdie on your shoulder. Some people would say, oh, the little angel and the little devil, no, I'm talking about

12:21what comes to your mind? What are you reading? What are you watching? Because understand this, the people that you're thinking of, it doesn't have to be someone physically present in your life. It could be a mentor that you're reading books. It could be someone even like me on a podcast. It doesn't have to be me, by the way. But it could be someone like that that you're like, gosh, I followed them for the last like, you know, 10 years or whatever. And they really have had an impact on my life. Okay, they could be part of your circle. Those are the people who matter. Because those are the ones influencing the direction you're actually walking in. You know, some of us have been pouring into friendships that quietly pull us away from the woman, God is calling us to become. Who you are and who you are becoming. And not because those people are bad. Most of the time they're not. But because they're comfortable and comfort when it replaces growth becomes its own kind of cage. Right? It's like, yeah, I don't want to be stretched. This AC, let me tell you, is stretching me.

13:23I'm kind of done with it. I'm kind of hot. I thought I need a plunge bath like those ice plunge baths. Yeah, I'm like, I'm all over it right now. Put me in an ice bath. I don't even have to play football, but put me in an ice path. You know, it is so hot and so humid. But wisdom asks us to be brave enough to evaluate with grace, not judgment. Whether the people closest to us are sharpening our faith or dulling it. Iron sharpens iron. Who you hanging out with? And this isn't about cutting people off coldly or ranking your relationships like a corporate org chart. All right, that's not what we're talking about here. It's about being intentional. It's about recognizing that who you walk with will determine where you end up. And if you want to end up somewhere that honors the calling on your life, you need people around you who remind you of that calling, even when you're tempted to forget it. And oh, we are. Why?

14:23Because we're busy. How are you doing? I'm so busy. I mean, for me lately, I'm like, I am so tired. I didn't sleep well the night before last and sleep well last night, probably not going to sleep well. Tonight, why I don't have AC. We lost it over the weekend. I literally sent the note in it like 145 or 143 in the morning. I kid you not because it was so hot. It was so hot. I'm like, what is going on here? It's suffee. Why? Well, because the whole system is going, we have no power even to that particular electrical panel that runs our HVAC. Now, how you this only because we sit here and we can get stuck in our little littles, right? And some of those littles are important. And the bigger picture, what's more important? Where's your heart? How are you leading? What your character look like?

15:24How are you showing up for others? You know, Ruth didn't just tag along with Naomi for the company. She committed to a journey that required sacrifice, humility, and faith she couldn't get to see the fruit of. But she trusted that walking with a woman of God would lead her somewhere good. And it did. Beyond anything she could have ever imagined. The wisdom here isn't complicated, but it is convicting. Walk with the wise, and you will become wise. Walk with those who take their faith seriously and go find your own faith deep in in ways you didn't plan. Walk with people who speak life, who point you to scripture when you're spiraling, who love you enough to tell you the truth. Watch how your path is straight in. You were never meant to walk this journey alone, never. Hence why we have this community. Why I am itching and just like, oh, literally and figuratively,

16:24wanting to get a few things off the ground, this fall into winter. And I'm so excited, but I'm also flustered at the same time. Why? Because I need more time. And in order to have more time, a few other things have to fall into place and they haven't yet. Like the sale of our home. The roof being put on. All of these things that have to fall into place. And sometimes it's like, why am I walking this journey, Lord? And he says, trust me. And I like, but he's like, uh, uh, uh, trust me. And so I have to surround myself with people who say, Christina, yeah, this is what you need to do and they help me. They point me. They show me. They remind me. And you're never meant to walk this journey alone. And you were never meant to walk it with just anyone. The company you keep is one of the most important decisions you make, season by season. Not once, right? But every single day.

17:26So choose wisely. Choose people who make you want to be more of who I created you to be, who you are and who you are becoming. And then be that person for someone else. Pass it along. Because wisdom doesn't just sit on a shelf. It walks. Walk in wisdom. Go in peace. Be present. Be incredible. Be you. I love you so very much. I cannot wait to see you on the other side. Plus in tags and lots and lots of love. Talk to you real soon. Have a glorious blessed week. Bye-bye. Feeling inspired and ready to train for life and love your journey. Visit createyournow.com for more incredible resources to help you along the way. We'll see you next time on Create Your Now Your Best Selfie. And remember, always be sure you consult your physician before beginning any health and fitness plan.