Have you ever spent time with someone and come away feeling uplifted and wanting to spend more time with the person? Or, felt the opposite? Believe it or not, this “gut feeling” can actually be a prompting from the Holy Spirit. The people we surround ourselves with can and do impact our spiritual health.Whether we realize it or not, the collection of family, friends, colleagues, and others in our lives are reflections of our beliefs and values. They are capable of either positively or negatively influencing our thoughts, behaviors, and the path of life on which we are headed.So what does today’s verse in Proverbs 27 really mean? Anyone who believes in Christ lives in freedom from sin and bondage. In order to continue living out each day in the freedom He gives us, we need to surround ourselves with those who embody the values, beliefs, thoughts, and actions that are Christ-centered. For just as an iron instrument is sharpened by another iron instrument, we need like-minded people to keep living in God’s freedom and living in a way that the world sees that we are Christ followers.