Investing In Others
Investing In Others
I think it’s time to get back to some “old school” in our lives today.
There is an overwhelming amount of technology and Twitter touches or Facebook blurbs. But, one-to-one interfaces with people that have relationships are dramatically lower each decade that passes by. The problem with that is where do we gain insight and wisdom from those who have gone before us.
I’m not sure about others but I can tell you when I was in my 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s I needed a perspective other than my narcissistic view of life that included, “What I was entitled to, and who, other than me, was to blame for my misery.” I needed to hear other ways to view my circumstances and challenges that only someone who has been there before could give me.
This person in my life was Inez Carlson, AKA Grandma C or Granny.
She was the best!
She taught me how to see things from God’s perspective, how to be a Godly woman, wife, and mother. Inez embodied God’s grace, love, and commitment to mankind like none other. Inez was an example of unconditional love. She knew who the enemy really is and how to fight him. She taught me how to pray and how to win the war. She taught me how to see God’s plan and stay focused on God’s agenda. She taught me not to dance with demons but to let God determine the battlefield.
Inez had been a true Jesus follower since she was 17. It happened in 1924 when she died from a ruptured appendix and pneumonia and came back to life! It was a remarkable experience that led her to Christ. Fifty-one years later, when she was 68, we met. At the time she was a BiblesStudy teacher and made the Bible come alive with all of the cultural and background around the Bible lesson for that week. She brought Jesus, His love, life, and commitment to His Father and to mankind to live.
Think about how her walk began for her. Not only did she teach it but also most importantly she lived it. She was a depositor into people’s lives. She was an influencer to thousands and a mentor to many.
She was a mentor to me.
She had a heart for me. I was lost, struggling, and hurting, she had the cure; Jesus and unconditional love. Inez never told people what to do. She never judged them. Inez never gossiped, she never said a bad word about another person. She said she’d just pray.
And pray she did.
There is a movie out called “War Room” by the Kendrick brothers. It is a phenomenal example of mentoring and investing in others. The basic storyline is a woman asking God to put someone into her life for her to invest in that person. Teaching this person that the people in her life aren’t her enemy but in fact, there is an enemy that wants to steal, kill, and destroy. That is the real enemy and you need a real strategy to fight and win those battles. These lessons could never be communicated or even understood on social media. We cannot pass relationship principles through Twitter. It is a “living and life” issue that requires touch, eye-to-eye contact, and time. “Warm coffee” is a lesson that can only be expressed face-to-face. God’s love is more than 140 characters; it is a verb, an action, and a “living-together-actively” plan. Touching the broken-hearted, those hurting, is beyond what 140 characters can heal.
People need to know they are valuable and that there is hope! They need to know that there is a God that loves them, not because they saw it in print but because someone who has been there can share their experience, strength, and hope. That is the key; people reaching out to people.
We have a world of hurting young people and we need to stand up and fight for them. It is essential for us to link arm in arm and to be “raising up” an army of prayer warriors that will spend time on their knees praying for our youth. It is crucial to be people known for love and perseverance to stand for our families. We must be willing to dedicate time to one another in person not by text, email, (no one emails anymore, too many words) Twitter, Facebook or the newest Instagram (fewer words, less able to connect, a picture should say it better than a thousand words, hmm….“not so much”).
It doesn’t matter if they are our own children or someone else’s but the key is to be present with our teens; it is essential to invest by example not by rules, regulations, condemnations, and so on. They actually need to know we care, not because we say so but because we are willing to participate, invest, and value them. Investing in their friends, standing in the gap for them, praying for them.
Saying to Satan “you cannot have my children or their friends.” When teens are invested in, trained, and taught they respond.
Children aren’t the only targets; families are. If there can be chaos, hatred, animosity between husbands and wives the family disintegrates leaving brokenness and despair. Pain that flows from our hearts to our children and out the door to the world we live in.
It is time to say “Not Any More Satan! You cannot have our families, our marriages, or our children!”
We don’t fight against people Paul tells us:
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
Ephesians 6:12 NIV
This is not a fight for us to do alone.
We need one another.
When we let go of our differences and are willing to be united on the core foundation of Jesus Christ we will be able to withstand the fiery darts of the evil one.
Peter tells us to “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
1 Peter 5:8 NIV
As we read the end of the Book; Jesus wins! It is time that we go back to the “Old School” and invest in one another. Generation-to-generation; line upon line; precept upon precept; the Truth, to be passed on people to people, face-to-face. The Grandma Cs, the Miss Claras, of the world changed the world one woman or one man at a time. Let us be the men and women who are intentionally passing on God’s truth with each person God brings into our lives.
Are we willing to take one hour a week to invest in someone else? Are we willing to reach out with our experience, strength, hope, and our faith in God to share what we have learned with someone else? Can we be the example of unconditional love in someone else’s life? Write down the name of one person with whom you are willing to help.
