LOVING GOD, LOVING OTHERS

I have often prayed, “Lord, let me help someone heal their broken spirit today. Let me send forth a single ray of sunlight across their darkened pathway so they can clearly see the light of a beautiful day…Let me, be the one person to fill their life with a ray of hope.”

After praying this prayer, I wonder how many times God has sent such a person to me, and I brushed it off by thinking this person is a chronic complainer. I am sure we all know someone who just does not seem to have a good day at anytime. They never seem to have any joy in their life. They speak as if their life has nothing but a bucketful of burdens they must carry. They are quick to tell you that nobody cares about them and their friends and family are never there when they need them. They hate their job and their boss and co-workers are all picking on them…

I have run across those people on more than one occasion in my lifetime, and in all honesty, I must say it was something that I found hard to deal with.

Sure, they are probably looking at things all wrong, but those are the people I believe God sends to us at certain times. Maybe life becomes complicated for them and they need encouragement along the way. Maybe they need a word of kindness… Maybe they are seeking out someone to be a lasting friend, or just maybe they need to hear that someone really loves them for who they are.

There are those living among us who are not satisfied with what they have. They see no sunshine in their life at all. They wish for things to be different. Yet, they don’t know how to go about making things different. Perhaps, they are looking for what they already have. It just takes something to open their eyes to the fact. A good illustration of this is a cute story I read of a discontented farmer, and it goes like this:

There was once a farmer who had lived on the same farm all his life. It was a good farm with fertile soil, but with the passing years, the farmer became discontented. He began to think, there must be something better in life for me. He set out to find a better life.

Every day he found another reason to criticize his farm and finally he decided to sell the old place. He called a real estate agent who promptly started making signs for advertising the property. The agent emphasized all the good qualities of the farm mentioning the good acreage: ideal location, modern outbuildings all well-kept, good healthy livestock and rolling pastures all fenced in. The soil was so rich it could boast of high-yielding crops. It has a very nice two-story house on a hill with scenic beauty surrounding the property.

The real estate agent called the farmer when he had finished making out the signs of advertisement. He wanted to get the farmer’s approval before he called the newspaper office. When he had finished reading, the farmer called out, “Whoa, hold everything! I’ve changed my mind. Why, that is just the place I’ve been looking for all my life!”

If we look for and start identifying the good traits of any person, we may find that their good traits often outweigh the bad ones. We never know what may be lying deep within a person’s spirit that is weighing them down. It is truly my desire to be the kind of friend that brings hope to the hopeless, joy to those who are joyless, and spread the word that God loves them no matter what is, or has been in their lives… Now the Lord is that spirit: and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty_2 Corinthians 3:17.

 “If by life’s roadside I shall plant a tree,  beneath whose shade some wearied head may rest,  though I may never share its beauty, I shall yet be truly blest ---though no one knows my name, nor drop a flower upon my grave, I shall not have lived in vain while here.” ---Anonymous

Loving God, means loving others. That is the way I see it!

Have a great day in the Lord,

Mary Frances King