People Can Subtract From Our Lives...

By...
Distracting and draining
Offering little to nothing to replenish that
which they reap and gain from us.
Deflating our hopes through their pessimism and sarcasm.
Hindering us from our goals.
Just being simply incapable of being what
we need in the varying seasons of our lives.
Leading us away from the mind of Christ to
their carnal status quo mentalities.
Highlighting and emphasizing the worse in us.
Adding or recognizing problems in our lives with no solutions.

Letting us stray in our ignorance.
Compounding our arrogance by agreeing with our foolishness.
Pointing out the ills of life and the worse in others.
Giving us ill-advised counsel.
Advising us to retaliate in retribution and vengeance,
when others do us wrong.
Accepting us in our brokenness
instead of being a healing balm.
Using us as a buffer when they fall,
and abandoning us when we most need them.
Seeking their selfish benefit at our sacrifice and expense.
Seemingly heroes in our lives but truly zeroes.

Who are the people who subtract from your life?
Examine the time they have spent in your life.
What return on your investment have you gotten?

How many withdrawals have they made without making sufficient deposits?
What minuses have occurred during their tenure in your life?
Have they been beautiful paint on the backdrop of your life
or just the builder's white paint?
Are you a better person from knowing them?
Have you become complacent and lethargic?
Have they made you comfortable with status quo?

How does their life and light shine?
Perhaps they have taken some of your glow,
and you aren't as bright as you were before
meeting them...
Light attracts light.
Iron sharpens iron.
Instead of sharpening your mind, they dull it.
You adopt their mediocrity and mundane attitudes
of acceptance and "whatever".
One minus One is Zero,
Two are Better than One,
if Both are Positive.