Who Do You Hang With?

We tend to take on the behaviors of those we are around. One of my very first jobs, after I married, was in a rough environment. My coworkers’ language was a rough as the environment. Then I was hired for a teaching position in a middle school in a highly desirable school district two weeks before school began. I didn’t realize that I had picked up the language of my coworkers until I caught myself slipping in a classroom of 12-year-olds.

As a divorced mother of three, I gravitated to friends by default. Sometimes I wasn’t discerning. I know that I was influenced by the people I spent time with.

He that walks with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.
– Proverbs 13:20

I raised three children as a single mother before I remarried. I have experienced the potholes, pests, and perils of being the single head-of-household. As an educator in regular and special education for twenty years, I know a great deal about child development and how to handle kids. I am the founder of SMORE for Women, a nonprofit whose goal is Single Moms, Overjoyed, Rejuvenated, and Empowered. I’m also a Certified Professional Coach and my stories have been published in several Christian books and magazines. My book, Living Learning Loving is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble online.