Being careful with the company you keep

[Insanis]

My daily habits normally leave me free from influence from a lot of the goings on in the world that are unholy and I am careful about any social groups, but in reflecting on the dangers of being influenced by others, I've found some holes: in news sources, in casual interactions, and in written correspondence even that there are dangers, or at least, imprudent interactions without good purposes even if nothing bad comes of it.

Know you not that a little leaven corrupteth the whole lump? Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new paste, as you are unleavened. For Christ our pasch is sacrificed. Therefore let us feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote to you in an epistle, not to keep company with fornicators. I mean not with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or the extortioners, or the servers of idols; otherwise you must needs go out of this world.

But now I have written to you, not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother, be a fornicator, or covetous, or a server of idols, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner: with such a one, not so much as to eat.  For what have I to do to judge them that are without? Do not you judge them that are within? For them that are without, God will judge. Put away the evil one from among yourselves.

I am usually reminded often of the need to take stock of what is going on and correct any straying and this is something that has come up. There is little good in spending time among those who largely promote vice and are potential occasions of impropriety if not sin.

I'm going to go through some things in my life, my bookshelves, my music rack, and see whether anything is good to put away from my life. It is amazing what little things can accumulate over time.

[Christina_S]

Good reminder. I am in the process of deciding whether I want to keep my profile on a certain site that rhymes with Space Nook. We are about to move across the country but plan to move back in 6 years or so, and it would be a useful tool for keeping in touch with friends. At the same time, the number of ads is out of control, the algorithm isn't showing me the pages I like, and the censorship is freakishly dystopian.
I was also reflecting the other day on how this site basically trains people to comply. Don't like someone's opinion? Just keep scrolling; it's easier to ignore it quietly than to try engaging with it and potentially lose a friend. It's a website designed to promote acceptance of sin and evil.

If Canada Post were more reliable, I would keep in touch with our dearest friends via snail mail, but I've had way too many gifts/letters/wedding photos get lost in the vortex between Ontario and Alberta.