Our family motto is Love is Kind. As Havilah Cunningham would say “It’s our Hobby Lobby” sign. And yes it is written on our wall decor as well as on necklaces. No matter how somebody treats you, we as Christians do not have a right to be anything other than kind. Is this always easy? Absolutely not. Can it be fake sometimes. Yes. But to be unkind is not an option. Kindness can have various levels. We ask our children to be courteous as the lowest level of kindness. So a few years ago when I saw a book titled “Love Does” by Bob Goff I knew it was a book for us….and it was. It confirmed that love is active. It confirmed that to love others starts with kindness and usually increases when you say yes. Say yes to doing things in love. Say yes to crazy, fun spontaneous fun with people. 1 Corinthians 13 is pretty clear that if we don’t have love we don’t have anything.
Bob Goff has a new book out this week called “Everybody Always”. I was selected to be a part of a launch team that gave me the first 5 chapters early. I felt so cool being “selected”. I’m sure all 3,000 of us felt that way. :) Bob has this amazing way of just being fun and normal and outgoing and fun and loving and fun and motivating and fun…did I say fun? So I picked up his second book and thought…we got this love thing. After all it IS our family motto! What I didn’t count on was the phrase he wrote in Everybody Always that says “love those people you don’t like”. I am an extravert. I love people. I have been in ministry my whole life. I love people. Our home is your home…I LOVE PEOPLE!!! So why oh why does this quote keep running through my brain? You want to know why? Because when people aren’t nice to me or my kids..I don’t like them much less love them. Did I really just say that out loud? Oh that hurt! I don’t have time to go into the momma bear side of me regarding my children. But I will take a few moments to talk about leadership. Leaders make decisions. My pre-school teacher wrote in my report card that I talked to much in class and was a natural leader…so did my Kindergarten teacher, my 1st Grade teacher, my 2nd grade teacher, my 3rd grade teacher…you get the idea. I think basically leadership boils down to one word. DECISIONS. If you can make a decision you are a leader. I did not realize how many people can’t even decide where to eat! I never even second guessed myself in Kindergarten when I picked the blue crayon over red…I was a natural leader. I could make decisions!
Imagine my surprise as life as passed me by that not everyone agrees with my decisions! (Insert hysterical laugh here). Matter of fact some people don’t like the way I laugh, the way I do my hair, the way I speak, the way I dress or even how I decorate my house. When these people don’t like these things about me I tend to want to avoid them. AVOIDANCE IS NOT LOVE! AVOIDANCE IS NOT KIND! If someone ignores me it hurts. Yet, when I feel like someone doesn’t like me I completely and throughly avoid them. “Everybody Always” respectfully pointed this out to me. Truth hurts and the truth is that as much as I say I love everybody always….I apparently don’t. Now don’t send me wonderful e-mails validating me. Allow me room to grow in this! I NEED TO GROW in this!! For those who know me …I need your help. Pray for me to love those that I feel don’t like me. Pray for me to be bold with my faith. Bob Goff…thank you for challenging me. I needed it!
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