No, really. Anyone with access to photo-editing apps can slap a pithy saying on a picture and send it out into the void, and someone will think it’s the best thing they’ve ever heard. Don’t get me wrong, the Internet is full of good advice, too, but that doesn’t seem to get passed around as much as the bad or not-so-good. (and yes, I recognize the irony of my writing on the internet about good/bad advice. Whatever).

I’ve seen some things floating around Facebook and Instagram lately about dumping friends who are critical of you. (OK — I do understand that there is a marked difference in being constructively critical of you and being grumpy about you. I don’t like to hang around people who are constantly saying negative things about me, either).

No one likes to get called out or criticized. I certainly don’t. But most of the time I try to realize it’s for my benefit in the future and not my comfort in the moment, so I try to buck up and move on. That’s not always easy, and it certainly depends on the person or persons talking to me. However, we need people in our lives who love us enough to make us uncomfortable for the sake of making us better. Especially if you’re a follower of Jesus. If we, as Christians, are constantly seeking to be like Jesus, there is going to be friction within our own selves that causes us to mess up because we have a natural propensity toward sin. It’s just postlapsarian life. And I, for one, am grateful for those who do life with me closely enough to recognize when things are going awry and help me realize it, too.