It's Sunday. Waahooo! Super Bowl Sunday actually. Who wouldn't be excited about that? I know I sure am. If the commercials and food aren't enough of a draw for me, the fact that the Steelers made it in this year definitely is. Let's Go Pittsburgh!
Anyways, not sure what everyone else normally does with their Sundays, but for me, straight out of the womb, mine have always been about church. Since I'm pretty new at this whole blog thing, and don't really have any patterns or traditions going yet, I decided I would start one. From now on I'm going to make my Sunday blogs a little bit different than all the rest. No, don't get worried, I'm not going to preach, but I am going to talk about things with a little bit more substance. I know what you're thinking...more substance than Jergen's lotion and itchy sweaters? Yeah, hard to imagine, but here it goes...
Today, for my first attempt at this, I got to thinking a little bit about relationships. Not necessarily just love relationships, like girlfriend and boyfriend/husband and wife (although they certainly do fall in that category), but also about the relationships we have with our friends, with our parents, or even with random people we meet on the street.
Unfortunately today we live in a very selfish society. If you look around, you will see this world is all about me, me, me. People are worried about themselves, and only themselves and really don't care who they have to step on along the way, as long as
they are getting where
they want to go. And since that's what this world around us is teaching us, it's very easy to get sucked into that way of thinking.
But the truth is, that mentality will never bring a person true happiness. From what I've seen, selfishness and misery go hand in hand. I believe that if you want your life to increase and if you want your life to get better, then you need to help improve somebody elses life. The people that come into our lives, don't come into it by chance. God puts them there on purpose. It is our job to encourage them, build them up, and challenge them to reach for new heights.
As most of you know, for the past few months I have been dealing with a break up from a significant relationship. I keep telling myself I'm not going talk about it anymore on here, but it's clearly not working out so well....Oh well... anyways, for the longest time I just kept asking why? why? why? Why did I have to waste 3 1/2 years of my life on something that didn't work out? Why? Why? Why?
But the more I've got to thinking about it, the more it all makes sense. It wasn't time wasted at all. It was a lesson learned...another piece in the puzzle. In this case it wasn't so much about me (although I did learn a lot too), but more about how I was to be used to have an impact on him. I encouraged him. I challenged him. I helped turn his life around. By Christian example I showed him how to treat people with love and respect and selflessness...things he'd never been shown or taught before. And hopefully I inspired him to want become a better person.
That is why.
So whether it's our friends, our boyfriends, or the cashier at the grocery store, its important for us to remember that the way we treat people can have a big impact on their lives, whether we know it or not. Not only will it help them, but in a weird way it will help you as well...Trust me...There is no greater investment in life than being a people builder.
Quote of the day: "The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit." ~ Nelson HendersonDo unto others as you would have others do unto you. ~ Matthew 7:12
Anyways, the point of my story is (yes there is actually a point), I've known Coach Ralph Freidgen for quite a few years now and it seems that every day that goes by he keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. By my ex's senior year Ralph literally could barely even walk anymore and during practice would drive his golf cart around everywhere because even the simple task of putting one foot in front of the other was too hard for him to bear.
