Making Agreements

I'm currently reading "Walking with God" by John Eldredge.  It is a fantastic book, it truly is.  I am writing in the margins, underling, starring things.  I love it. 

One things that the book talks about is agreements, or I have started calling them consessions, that we have made with the enemy.  Now stay with me, even if you're not a Christian I bet you can relate to what I'm about to say. 

These consessions are the things we say to ourselves in our head, maybe they're what keep us up at night and maybe you don't even know we've entered in to it. 

Can you relate to any of these?
I'll never have any friends, I'm not outgoing enough.
If I just lost 10lbs people would like me.
I will never get the promotion at work, I'm just not good enough. 
Its okay to be treated badly by this person, they've had it rough, they don't know any better. 

And the Enemy wants you to make these consessions, because the more you do the father from God you become.  And even if you don't believe in God, can you honestly say that these thoughts, ideas, beliefs, are doing you any good?  Making you feel any better about yourself?  

I realized this week that over the past four years I have been making an agreement.  That "friends" that treat you badly are better than no friends at all.  I'm so worried that I'll be alone, that no one will like me, that I've been putting up with people that don't hold the same ideals as me, that don't respect me, because I had made the assumption that it was better than the alternative.

But suddenly this week (and maybe longer) I'm starting to notice things in a different light.  That email that pokes fun at a tradegy, not funny.  The assertion that just because someone hates her husband or being around her children that everyone must, not true and frankly insulting.  The need to drink until drunk at every event, not enjoyable, not how I want to spend my time. 

The even bigger awakening?  I have friends, I have amazing, wonderful, wouldn't trade for the world, would do anything for friends.  That I don't have to have this person or her followers in my life and I will be okay.  So I did it, I cut the strings that tied me to her and I feel so free. 

Have you felt freedom recently?