5 Ways to Know if a Friendship is Healthy or Toxic:
1. A healthy friend supports your successes even when they don’t feel successful. A toxic friend makes you feel guilty for the good God is doing in your life.
2. A life-giving friend knows real love can mean hard love. They tell you the stuff that’s hard to hear when it’s in your best interest. A toxic friend says all the right things without loving you enough to tell you the truth.
3. A good friend brings something to the table. A toxic friend is a mooch.
4. A life-giving friend celebrates the fact that you have other friends in your life. A toxic friend is possessive and jealous.
5. A toxic friend influences you to do things against your better judgment. A life-giving friend is a light in your life and stands by you when you choose what’s right even when it’s not popular.
Proverbs 17:17 says that a friend loves at all times—when it’s uncomfortable, when they don’t see the same success in their life, when you’re at rock bottom, and every moment in between.
If your friends leave you feeling deceived, like you have to be someone you’re not, fit in, criticize your joy to make them feel better about themselves, or lead you further away from God’s heart instead of closer to Him, slowly distance yourself from the friendship. You don’t have to cut them out of your life all at once, but you don’t have to keep giving them all your time.
Cutting off toxic friendships isn’t about exiling people from your life, but you can be intentional about who you spend your time with.