I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day on this beautiful, rainy, day in my home state, Arizona! It is such a blessing to be with family and friends that are so dear...we should cherish them each and every day! :)
This week I want to encourage, and hopefully challenge, each one of us. On Christmas I shared a quote I have shared before. In fact, something is telling me I have probably mentioned this in a Happy Friday before. Regardless, it is worth sharing over and over and over and over....
"My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?" ~ Bob Hope
Beautiful, and true, isn't it?! The reality is we don't, and shouldn't, wait. We could experience the warm, fuzzy feelings of Christmas each and every day if only we would take the time to genuinely love others. Think about it Friends; what if you spent as much time thinking every day about your loved one's and friends as you did preparing for Christmas? What if instead of doing this only once a year, we did it every singly day for a year? You think our relationships would be better? You think you and I would be more fulfilled? There is no doubt, if only...
What does love look like? Does it have to be a spectacular necklace, ring, toy, gadget, [fill in the blank with whatever you want], etc.? No, these things are simply symbols that we took the time to think about another and - this is a really big AND - it is not an excuse or "pass" to not genuinely love others the other 364 days a year. And yet, sadly, many ignore those they profess to love and then hope that the shiny [whatever you want it to be] will make up for it. And we wonder why this world is filled with hurting, broken people.
Love is taking the time to call, text or send an email. Love is a smile. Love is letting someone else go before you. Love is serving others with your time, talent and/or treasure. Love is quite simply, anything we do for another with a pure-heart, expecting nothing in return. Any time we lighten anothers load, that is love. Any time we help another, that is love. Any time we let another know they matter, that is love.
Love is a choice, not a feeling. This is where so many of us go wrong. If we don't "feel" a certain way, we don't love. But that, by definition, is conditional love. This is not the love I am talking about and I am highly certain it is not the type of love Mr. Hope was talking about. To love another is value, cherish and adore them for who they are, where they are. It has nothing to do with you, the circumstances, our feelings, etc. It is simply an intentional decision to love another...
So why is this so hard for so many of us? Fritz Chery wrote an article titled, Loving Others, on July 3, 2018 which is posted at biblereasons.com. Here is an excerpt that I think captures a lot of this beautifully.
"Love is not love if the heart is not in it. We are to love without hypocrisy. Genuine love should lead us to humble ourselves and serve others. Love should lead us to talk to others. Loving others will lead to making sacrifices. Love should compel us to sacrifice time to genuinely get to know others.
Love should compel us to talk to the guy at church standing by himself. Love should compel us to include others in our conversation. Love should compel us to give more. To sum it up, even though love is not action, love will result in actions because a genuine loving heart compels us."
So, Merry Christmas! This is a beautiful day to love others! And I have a hunch that tomorrow will be as well! Let's call it the Christmas Every Day Challenge...the challenge to simply love others each and every day.
Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.
Have a great day, a wonderful weekend and please cherish your precious families!
Kev
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