Every Blessing and Curse is a Choice Now.

Ya know... I just want to take the people I care about most and go on a perfect vacation. Even if it's just like...a day long trip to the beach. Cause when you're with people that you love... "life is different. Time doesn't move hour to hour, but mood to moment. We live by the currents, plan by the tides, and follow the son."...I consider the people close to me to be my treasures. Each person is precious to me. I value all of them greatly...but I've never felt like I've been able to express it well enough...or maybe I just didn't take the time enough to show it.

I'm changing that now.

I have this problem..that sometimes I think people really take me for granted...I KNOW people do...and it really drove me insane. I like being consistant...I like helping people, and because I like being consistant, I do it whenever I can....but often times I feel like people just kind of get used to it...like with worship. Before, when I first started leading worship, people would come up to me and tell me that I did a really good job....but now that I've been doing it for a while...it's like people start to assume that I don't need or want to hear that any more..so it stopped. I love to feel needed, I love it when people come tell me "good job" or anything like that...but after a while of being consistant it just got to the point where I felt like I wasn't being appreciated any more..that what I was doing had changed from a blessing, to something that was..expected of me....and it really got me thinking...Do the people around me feel the same way I do?...and...I knew the answer was probably yes.

I'm almost 100% sure that everyone gets to a point in their life where they don't feel appreciated..and they all have probably wondered this exact same thing...and so I made a decision that I'm going to go up to people and purposefully bless them.

Everybody wants to be needed. Everybody loves to be loved. I'm trying to let people who I need know that they're needed, people that love know they're loved, and people that I really appreciate know that they're appreciated. I decided that I'm going to try to establish a new habit for myself to bless people or compliment them at least once whenever I talk to them. It's an unusually hard habit to get rolling, but I'm working on it. Now don't get me wrong, I don't mean that as soon as I see someone I'm just going to be like "you look nice today" and then go up to the next person and say the same thing. I'm going to give a sincere compliment or blessing every time..one that's well thought out. Sometimes that might be a: "you look nice today", but it's going to be sincere..not just...throwing them around.

John C. Maxwell describes his approach as the 30-second rule. That you compliment or bless someone within the first 30 seconds of talking to him or her.

I haven't exactly gotten to that level yet, but I've started...and it's amazing how..blessed people actually get...just by taking aside a few seconds to just bless people...compliment them...it doesn't take long, doesn't take much, but it can change someone's whole day around...I've found that I love blessing people...you might be thinking "yeah, no duh Jeshua, it's supposed to work that way..you bless others-you feel blessed. old news."..but then why doesn't everyone do this?? It's old news but still hardly anyone does it...and now that I've started...I can really impact a person's life. People will even start to appreciate ME because I am telling them that I appreciate THEM. Go figure.

It would be nice if people came up to me and did this to me more often...but for now...if that doesn't happen, I'm ok. I absolutely love blessing people. It's addicting. I love being able to make someone's day. Even if I don't make their day, I love being able to make them smile.

It's not even hard...it's not like I'm killing myself like "ugh come ON! why can't I THINK of anything, I have to do this!". Not at all. I'm not making things up to bless people..cause then I wouldn't be honest. I simply ask myself what I like about that person, what do they add to my life?, why am I glad they're around?, what special qualities do they have?....it's always stuff I already think about...it's just that now I'm actually TELLING people what's in my head...and it really makes them happy....and that...my friends...

is priceless.

Deuteronomy 11:26 - "Look, today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse." (NLT)

...now...I have a suggestion...how about we choose to be a blessing.