I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day as a glorious new day begins to dawn in my Sweet Home Alabama! I absolutely love the quiet peace at the dawning of a new day! You can almost feel the hope, the opportunity, the promises in this great new gift! :)
This morning I want to share a critically important question and one thought. I will share a few thoughts however, more than anything else, I hope you will thoughtfully consider each.
I apologize, I don't recall the source of the question. I came across it earlier this week, perhaps on Monday. It has convicted my Spirit repeatedly this week. I fully intend to keep it before me every day, the rest of my life. Here it is:
"Where is the love in what you are doing?"
Anyone else shift a little bit in their chair in reading that one?! :) It is easy to see the love, or the appearance of it, when things are going well, everyone is being nice to us, we are in a good mood and so is everyone else...it is easy to love at those times. But what about when someone is mean to us? What about when things just aren't going our way? What about when we just don't feel good, we don't feel like loving? There, in those moments, where is the love in what we are doing?
Luke 6:32-33 says:
"If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them! And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much!
Yeah, a critically important question...
So as I have encountered different situations over the course of this week I have found my Spirit whispering to me, "Where is the love in what you are doing?" Does this mean we don't confront issues, address problems or speak truth? No, I would argue - lovingly! :) - that those are actually expressions of love...they just have to be done in love. It is, in fact, a heart issue. What is the intent of the heart? Is it being done in love or out of selfishness, pride, anger, etc?
A couple of scriptures would be good here...
Proverbs 4:23 says, "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."
Ephesians 4:15 starts, "Instead, speaking the truth in love..."
Look, I fully understand that this is not easy...trust me! I am not having some Pollyanna moment here where we are going to think about this sentence and all of the sudden we are all going to start singing kumbaya and every day is going to be sunshine and rainbows. That, at best, would be delusional. What I do hope is that, much like the gauges in our car warn us when something is wrong, that we utilize this sentence as a gauge in our lives. That before we speak or act, we ask ourselves this critically important question. That we would let it refine our words and deeds...that honestly running our actions through the filter of this 9 word question, we would let our Spirits convict us when our intentions were not pure. And please never forget, it is not our sarcasm, criticism, witty responses, pride, anger or shouting that will change the world...it is our love.
I also want to share a simple thought with you. I am pretty sure I saw this one on the Positive Coaching Alliance website. It said, "Most players don't know you care about them...tell them." Let me shift that just a little bit for us; "Most people don't know you care about them...tell them." How simple and yet incredibly profound. How about we actually tell the people we genuinely care about that we care about them? Who is that person in your life that pops into your mind right now? The one that you really care about but perhaps have never told them. How about you pick up your phone right now and call them or text them and tell them that you genuinely care about them? Or how about if you send them an email? Let's not miss opportunities to let people know that we genuinely care about them. Let them know that they are not on this journey alone...that they have someone who genuinely cares about them and is there for them. Please don't assume they know, simply tell them.
Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.
Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious families and please stay healthy and well.
Kev
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