Yesterday I inadvertently referenced 2013 instead of 2012. Many of you gleefully wrote to me and mentioned that I made an error.
Hmmm… I got a nasty e-mail after the first WFTD that I mailed out for this new year, and the very next day I got bombarded with a landslide of good natured chides and harassment for the 2013 mistake. I suppose one could make the case that this has the makings of being a very long – long – long – long, long, long year… but always the eternal optimist I’m at least encouraged that so many of you are carefully reading it.
Sometimes we just never know how something we say or do might impact others. I write and send out WFTD every weekday, but I’m not a fly on the wall and thus I don’t see anyone read it. And unless they write me, I have no idea if what I’ve written has any effect on them, (good or bad), or indeed if they’ve even read it at all.
Last night I got an e-mail from a former employee that I haven’t seen or heard from in years. He wrote to thank me for the impact that I’ve had on his life. He mentioned things that I’d done for him that I’d long since forgotten, and quite frankly he talked about some things that I didn’t remember at all.
He wrote that I’d encouraged him to try something new that he loved and he reminded me that I even bought him a relatively expensive gift to get started with the project. He not only took my advice (and gift) and put them to good use, but he achieved tremendous success and now has reached the pinnacle of his undertaking and has produced startling accomplishments.
He thanked me for encouraging him, writing in part: “I was thinking about you today and I wanted to write to say “thank you” for all that you’ve done for me over the years – you’ve been a good friend and mentor, both in business and for my personal projects. Your encouragement really got me rejuvenated about 6 years ago and helped me to really develop a passion that continues today”. He went on to say that my “management lessons” served him well and helped him to achieve success.
Needless to say this really made me feel good this morning. I wish he could have been a fly on the wall and seen the smile on my face as I read his e-mail. I might add that quite frankly I very badly needed to hear what he wrote, because I’ve been discouraged of late, but this brightened my outlook and shored up my resolve to continue the good fight.
Satan is real and he works on all of us daily, but he especially tries to discourage believers. He has many names in the Bible and most of us think of him in terms that relate to what he was before his rebellion and subsequent removal from heaven and God’s Holy presence. Before the fall he was referred to as: angel of light, beautiful, wise, prince, etc., but after the fall: tempter, father of all lies, discourager, murderer, opponent, destroyer, adversary, the enemy, ruler of darkness, and the wicked one.
His mission is to destroy our relationship with Jesus Christ. He is full of hate for God and is jealous of His love for us. He spends every day trying to discourage and destroy us and our relationship with God.
I would suggest to you today that one way we can combat him is to encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ. The unsolicited e-mail that I received this morning from a nearly forgotten former employee meant a great deal to me. It made me feel good to know that last night he took time from his busy schedule to write me. It also provided some much needed determination to help others in similar fashion.
If someone has helped you in your daily walk, career, marriage, or whatever, I encourage you to call or write to them just for the express purpose of letting them know how much they’ve meant to you. Assuredly they hear from satan often enough, but probably not enough from other believers.
I also suggest that you use your many God given talents and resources to mentor others and perform acts of kindness towards them. Your encouragement just might be their ticket to great accomplishments and who knows maybe they’ll even come to know the Lord some day because of the seed that you planted.
In this new year the very first goal on my list is to try my utmost to be more like Jesus Christ. I realize that until I’m perfected in heaven I will not fully succeed, but nonetheless we should try. It begins with love.
Perhaps you don’t think you have the wherewithal to love as God loves. At age 22 I was mean as a rattlesnake, full of hate and bitterness, and I was diagnosed as being a sociopath by a team of psychiatrists. I was told that I had no conscience and was incapable of love and that my condition was “incurable”.
Jesus stated to the Apostle Paul: “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” Paul responded: “So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me”.
Being weak is not a weakness; boast of it in Christ…As the song goes: I am weak but He is strong
John 4:12
No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.