Life is About Relationships
Hey Gang,
I believe the the number one indicator of your enjoyment in life is your relationships. They are the key to life. Jesus said to “consider others as more important than yourself.” If you put others in front of you, great relationships are possible and you can impact many people in a positive way. It is clear in the Scriptures that this is what Christ wants us to do. I love what Covey said about this: “Seek to understand before you seek to be understood.” Far too many people are worried about getting their point across to consider the other person’s point of view. “Half of all the controversies and conflicts that arise among people are caused not by differences of opinion or an inability to agree, but by the lack of understanding of one another.”
WHY DO WE FAIL TO UNDERSTAND OTHERS?
1. Fear. Our first reaction to what we don’t get is to fear it and to react against it. Chill out!
2. Self-Centeredness. It is hard to have great relationships when we are always focused on ourselves.
3. Failure to Appreciate Differences. What if everyone on earth were exactly the same? It would be a boring world. Learn to appreciate how different God made each one of us. This will help you develop great relationships.
4. Failure to Acknowledge Similarities. Look for the good in people that you can work on and use to develop relationships. I love what my mentor John Maxwell said, “If you treat every person you meet as if he or she were the most important person in the world, you’ll communicate that he or she is somebody – to you.”
If we want to connect, influence, and impact people then we need to know some facts about people.
1. Everybody Wants to Be Somebody.
2. Nobody Will Care How Much You Know Until They Know How Much You Care.
3. Everybody Needs Someone.
4. Everybody Can Be a Someone. They need someone to believe in them. That is you.
5. Influencing People for Christ Will Change the World.
It is a simple choice to focus on yourself or others! It is easy to be self-centered, that is our nature and it takes little effort. If you are a Christ-follower than you need to put forth some effort to obey Christ’s commands in relationships. He wants to use us to change lives. We can’t influence people if we don’t connect with them. Who is on your radar screen? Who are you investing in for the Kingdom of God? It is all of our jobs, so let’s get to work.
Love Ya,
Pastor
3 Comments
I just love how you break all this down so clearly.
I am printing this one out and using it in our bible class for school. (we homeschool)
As always, thanks for the great thoughts!
Absolutely right! You said this so well – Everybody wants to be somebody! Yet believers go around every day not believing this for ourselves and denying others the gift of personhood Jesus died to give us. I’m also sharing this with some friends. Thanks for being you. You practice what you preach, my friend!
Yesterday i lead a brother in prayer in redicating his life to christ, we both have been talking for a year and recently started to attend fpc, we both talk also about Brother Chris’ blog, Brother Chris you are correct, if are proactive in our faith our relationships will flourish, i have tried my best for so many years to consider others more important in my life, and my main thrust is always to try to understand people what they are saying and doing, and yes this may come easy for me as i have been an transit bus driver in san jose calif for 18years and going on 6 here in knoxville, i still can misunderstand, and the best thing i can do is ask God for understanding and PAY ATTENTION to what he has to say, prayer and fasting has always brought me to my knees, Chris THANK YOU FOR YOUR OBEDIANCE TO OUR GOD “FATHER IN HEAVEN” Your doing a great job and blessing my socks off thanks Bro