Making a Quiet Difference

Lucy: You give up your seat every day in the train. 

Peter: Well... But that's not heroic. 

Lucy: It is to the person who sits in it.

~While You Were Sleeping~

We all want to feel significant. We all want to know we matter. In our search for those things we often want to feel as if we have made a difference in the life of someone else. The difficult part is knowing how to measure those things. In a previous post on competition, I discussed the need many find to "do better" than the next person. We lose our feeling of significance by the false belief that more is always better. Many of us want to make a difference but feel as if we fail if we don't don't get more attention than someone else.

When Ray went to high school we had many discussions about popularity. What makes kids popular and what value is there in that? So many work to be the prettiest, smartest or the best athlete. What if we taught each other to be the kindest? What if we told our children that being generous was more important that being popular? Even better, what if we showed it?

As a Christ follower, living in grace must mean I am giving out grace. Being gracious means I am not looking out for myself but looking out for others even when they are not being nice to me. That brings me to one of the most life changing verses I have in my arsenal: Philippians 2:1 "Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. 3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others."

My Facebook doesn't have the biggest friends list, very few people are following my pins on Pinterest and even less follow my Twitter. What I say may not make an impact on the masses but my hope is that today (because I only have today) that one person I encounter will feel more valued when I cross their path.

Who will you choose to bless today? Will others see the mind of Christ in you? How do you plan to make a quiet difference?

Always,

Hope