Episode 34: Iron Sharpens Iron: Why the Company We Keep is So Vital to Our Relationship With God with Punky Tolson

"As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." Proverbs 27:17 "You're the average of the five people you spend the most time with." Are you in good company? Punky Tolson made a promise when she was in high school. She had just become a Christian, and was full of high hopes of serving Jesus for the rest of her life. Then she went to college - and promptly fell away from the faith, not to mention the promise she had made a few short years earlier. She sought love, comfort, acceptance in the company of man after man after man - sometimes with no regard for the relationship status of the man she was with. In one case, her presence most definitely put her man's status to "It's complicated." "But I was helping him find happiness, he was in a bad marriage," she told herself. The rationalization hamster just keeps on spinning, doesn't it? It spins one' reality distortion into absolute truth if you let it. Why did this happen? Where were the friends who saw what was going on? Why didn't they intervene, try to make her see the error of her ways? The company we keep defines who we are. When Punky began hanging out with people who meant business with their walk with God, she began making better decisions. Now she and her husband minister to those who are walking the path they've walked, in hopes others will stand strong in their faith. In this episode, you'll hear: -Why giving up is the best place to be...04:45 -How Punky got to the end of herself...11:35 -How Punky dealt with her breast cancer diagnoses...17:30 -Disciple-making and Punky's mission to help women...25:45 -What most people don't know about Punky...29:45 Resources mentioned: punkytolson.com (You can find her Life on Life podcast on her website) John Piper Call to action: To learn more about Wendie and her Visibly Fit program, visit wendiepett.com To find out more about Todd and his coaching program for men, find him on the web at toddisberner.com. All the links you need to subscribe to the podcast are at both our websites! And if you feel so inclined, we'd be honored if you were to leave a rating and review of our show. It definitely helps with us being more visible to more people. And if we like it, we might just read your review on the podcast!