You know the saying misery loves company? Well, misery isn’t the only one, trouble loves it too. If you are going to do something “bad” or cause some sort of chaos, you never want to do it alone, right? You always need a partner in crime to go down with you.  It is as if we feel that as long as someone else is doing it with us, we won’t feel as guilty. But really all we are doing is encouraging others to do wrong.

Now I am being very general about this and there are endless ways this can be interpreted. For instance, we can probably (hopefully) all agree that encouraging someone to commit murder with us would be very wrong. But maybe something smaller like, lying to a friend wouldn’t be considered so bad. But with each opportunity we are given in life to lift someone up, we should take it. And when we feel the need to take someone down the wrong road and do something we would be better off not to do, we need to resist the urge, no matter how entertaining it may be. Better yet, if someone is pulling you down that long dark road, instead of going with them,  give them a reason to better their circumstances. It may be hard for us to resist temptation once given the choice, but it is much easier to be that voice to someone else to take the better road.

We need to be the sun and not the shadow. Leading others down a dark road is sacrificing their happiness for our temporary pleasure. We all are guilty of doing this whether we admit it or not, but we all have a chance to influence others. We can either be a positive influence or a negative one, and we make that choice every single day. Decide today that you are going to encourage someone to do the right thing because one day you may need that person to encourage you.

3 Quotes that speak volumes on this topic:

 “Be one who nurtures and builds. Be one who has an understanding and forgiving heart, who looks for the best in people. Leave people better than you found them.” –Marvin J. Ashton

“Wrong is wrong, even if everyone is doing it. Right is right, even if no one is doing it.”

“We’ve all got light and dark inside of us. What matters most is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.” –Siruis Black (Harry Potter)