What are you proving you are building?

What are we building?

Seriously.

This past weekend we listened to a sermon about how we as believers should be building one another up. We should be there when others need support and encouragement and in the hour of need offer words of encouragement and support rather than negative words that hurt and stunt growth.

There have been a few opportunities already this week to see how his has played out. How do we live or position ourselves to be builders in our communities, in our families, and in our relationships? It is through this process of learning, failing and getting back up that we can see progress and understand that life is so much better when we build up one another.

Andrew nor I are ones to often go on rants on Facebook, though we both have been caught up in that storm before we do try to stay away from the impersonal rants that happen on social media. Granted we all have an opinion but often it does not need to be shared in that way and on that platform.

Friends of mine this past week have been personally caught up in a storm of words because of a platform they took or a position they have. Some positions I agree with others I struggle with but understand. They have a right and freedom to their own position and I am ok with their opinion even when I do not agree with it. What I don’t understand is why people think they have to put other people down to get a higher status in life. We rise, when we raise each other up. Not when we step on one another to get there.

Things in life happen that we cannot control. We just can’t control it. Sorry. Yet, one thing that we can control is how we respond to the things that happen to us. Do we understand that the world does not revolve around us and we move on finding a solution to the problem? Do we self-deprecate, thinking why me and sulk around wishing the world was more in our favor? Do we sit back and just believe that the world is out to get us and there is nothing that we can do about it? I don’t think any of these are viable options though many (myself sometimes included) takes one of these roads. It is through the realization that we are human, we are not perfect that we understand the meaning of grace and how important not just in our religious walk but our daily walk (which should not be separate to begin with).

We understand that looking at ourselves is an important part in understanding how we interact with the world and what strengths we bring to situations, then time for action comes where we must do something about what we think. I don’t mean acting by taking it to social media. I meaning how we respond. Are we mad when something does not go our way? Can we come up with another solution? Can we treat humans, the world, animals, with kindness that is deserved not matter what race, religious view, weird animal (why skunks, I mean really), recycle, reduce, and reuse that is needed to build a positive impact on the community and the world around us. We separately make impacts and ripples we never will see come to fruition but our family, our co-workers, the people in the checkout line, are watching and waiting. Prove to them that we can be a positive force for good when so much is not good.

Prove to them that we can choose our response and it can be one of grace and truth pointing back to the perfect grace and truth.

What are you proving you are building? 

(Picture from the daily scripture on the Bible Ap)