Welcome to 10 minute Bible Talks.

Where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work.

I'm Tanya Wilmoth. Do you all remember a sixth grade? Well my sixth

grader has a good friend that switched to a different school during the pandemic and

they still get together but I knew my daughter was missing having her by her side in her new and really big middle school.

This isn't our first time around the middle school block, and she's watched a few siblings walk those halls. She's heard stories about who's in and who's out.

Who becomes popular for the right reasons and the not to write ones? She's pretty outgoing,

so I kind of took for granted that she must be navigating her sixth grade

year pretty well.

But I was a little surprised by her response when we heard that her old friend was moving

back to public school next year.

And I asked her if she was excited and she said yeah you

know because in middle school dramatic pause you need all the friends you can get

I guess she has discovered what we all have.

You need all the friends you can get in middle school. But really having friends around us makes a big difference. No matter how old we are it feels good to be known and have people to talk to.

It's fun to be invited and not so fun to feel like you're missing out.

How do we build a kind of network with good and kind people? Or in other

words, how do we become popular for the right reasons? When the Israelites were

ready to leave for Canaan, God expected them to live differently than the pagan nations.

And he told them that a caring community would protect them from outside influence, also known as idle worship.

And Moses told them following God's commands

and building their lives his way

...