In my life there have been key people who took the time to care...to love...to talk...and even to smile. In high school there was a woman who loved me when I felt unloveable. She spoke wisdom into my life and taught me how to be a woman of character and principle. When I was a child my step dad took me as his own and loved me as his daughter. He filled the holes that my dad had left gaping. Even now, he still tries to fill those holes. In college there was a professor who took me aside and spoke moments of encouragement into my ears...or so he thought. Really, his words sunk to my heart and I wouldn't be where I am today had he not spoken them to me. Two years ago I met a woman who offered me an internship. Turns out, she helped me uncover purpose and meaning in my life. She taught me selflessness and generosity and gave me opportunities to grow and learn and BE who God gifted me to be. Six years ago we moved to Detroit and didn't know a soul. A dear girl at a church we visited went out of her way to befriend me, even though, she really didn't need any other friends. She literally kept me sane that year of my life, and I don't know that I would have survived the first year of parenting without her. I certainly wouldn't be the mom I am today without her example and wisdom. More years ago than I count I met a handful of girls at a new school I felt "called" to attend. I never envisioned that fifteen years later they would still be my most comfortable and closest friends. Twenty-eight years ago I met my cousin, who is more like a sister to me. She has always been the person I can be MOST honest with...the one who knows me inside and out and who I can say anything to with complete confidence that she will speak truth into my life...but always clothed with love. I used to think I was the strong one between us, I didn' t know then that her strength would one day out shine that of all I know. That I would stand in awe of her faith and her love and her life. And from the moment I was conceived, I was given a mother who poured herself out for others. Who still to this day can make me feel taken care of and safe and comfortable and unconditionally loved in a million and one ways, in a single instant.
Every single day we have opportunities to speak into people's lives. We can send messages of purpose or we can speak messages of worthlessness. Sometimes it only takes a moment...in line at the grocery store, speaking to a sales clerk, even exhibiting grace in the midst of frustration. Other times, it involves sacrifice...reaching out when we don't feel like we have the time..giving, when we don't feel we have the resources. I am not advocating that we don't set healthy boundaries on our time and resources, but I am suggesting that so often our eyes are turned inward that we can't see the power each moment of our lives actually holds. We make choices in rash moments, not even noticing the discouragement our words and choices leave behind...the worthlessness that fills up the other's eyes.
I thank God for the people who took the time... be it a moment or two, or a few years, or a lifetime... to invest in me and to leave me with a message of purpose and worth. I am challenged continuously to look outside of myself and to invest the moments I have been given in ways that impart worth to others. So often we look for the BIG ways that we can make a difference in other's lives, and we get discouraged when we don't have the resources or the time or whatever it is that we think we need to do that really big thing. But in our looking and waiting for the BIG thing to come along, we often miss the million every day things that seem insignificant to us but can make the world of difference for the other. Everything matters...every moment matters...for it is our moments that make up our lives.
From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. Luke 12:48
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