Don't Give Up Your Power

Recently had a girls night with two of my great friends (love those girls....we even talked about how they would drive an hour to pick me up if I had a flat tire, cursing all the way down & laughing all the way home).  In said girls night we had some great conversation  - and one topic in particular stemmed around how a girl two of us knows is afraid to hang out with someone.  Why might you ask is she afraid to hang out with a potential new friend?  For fear of making a 3rd party upset with her for hanging out with the new friend.

My reaction you may be wondering? HOW FLIPPIN' STUPID!  Why should a 3rd party have any kind of control/power of who you want to hang out with and get to know?! I mean really people, we are all adults & have the capacity to decide who we want to spend time with.  Most of me just thinks this girl is kind of sad for letting that 3rd girl have any kind of say, and part of me feels mad on behalf of that girl for being "friends" with the 3rd girl.  What kind of friend puts parameters on who someone can and can not be friends with and/or hang out with.  Friends don't put those kind of restrictions on other people.

Let's be honest here folks, you have all the power & capability in the world to be able to decipher who is worthy of your time & who is not.  People who try to impose such silly parameters on others are not people who I would deem as "friends."  Friends are those who support you, encourage you, and above all else recognize that you are a capable individual.  Seems simple, I know - but it sure does seem to have so much power over some.
As for me -- there is no way on earth that someone would ever tell(or imply) me who I could & could not, should or should not be friends with.  Maybe that's the stubborn Norwegian in me - but I'm not one who's "told" to do much of anything, let alone who I deem as worthy of working in to the folds of my life.
All this to say my friends...don't give up your power, your voice, or your choice of who you want to be a part of your life.  No one else should make that decision for you.  And if at the end of the day you don't find that potential friend as someone who you want to share your life with then that's fine, because it's your call.

Ever dealt with something like this or seen this situation play out?
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