Last week we started talking about how vital communication is to your personal and business success. Today, we will finish that topic by talking about why communication with others and ourselves is so important.
I'm sure you have seen this, especially if you're on Facebook, posts that say "you never know what someone is going through, so be kind". And it is true, Especially if you work in a church office or in a ministry of any type. The world is full of broken people. Even those that are on staff have things that they are struggling with. But I want you to remember that every person that you come in contact with is a child of God. God created them in His image and whether or not they have accepted that gift of salvation from the Lord, God still loves them, and you are to love them. The Lord says in scripture... "he who says he loves Me but yet hates his brother is a liar." Okay? You cannot hate your brother and say that you love God at the same time. He says, uh-uh. That's not the way it works. And that's really hard sometimes regardless of whether you're working in a church office - you own your own business - you're a part of a CPA firm or you're in a Christian bookstore. Not everybody that walks into a church is a believer. Not everybody that walks into a Christian bookstore is a believer and not everybody that walks into your local business is a believer. We actually sell a mug at the store says, don't be tryin' to test the Jesus in me. Well, let me tell you.....I get tested all the time!
I have found that one of the best things that I (and you as well) can do is to pray and put the Armor of God in the morning before you even get up out of the bed,
Put on that helmet of salvation to protect your thoughts in your mind.
The breastplate of righteousness to protect your heart and your emotions,
The belt of truth so that you've got the truth of God in you.
The sandals of the gospel of peace to help you walk in peace and stability everywhere you go.
The shield of faith which protects you from head to toe, side to side to ward off those fiery darts of the enemy and then
The sword of the spirit which is the Word of God.
So we need to be putting this on every. single. day.
I'm sure I'm not the only one that has realized that you don't have any idea what is coming your way that day no matter what your planner has to say. You may get up thinking it's an absolutely normal day and it ends up being the most exhausting, terrible, awful, "I can't believe this is happening" kind of day that just takes the wind out of you, and the only thing you've got to rely on is God Himself because He's the only one who knew it was coming, And if you spend that time with Him in the Word in the mornings when you get up, it will make a difference not only in how you feel internally by Him providing that peace, but more importantly with how you respond to those life situations and to those individuals that walk into your office and aren't so kind and loving.
We've got to learn to respond to His Word and then communicating words of kindness and love and patience to those around us. And then the third way that we need to communicate is how we talk to ourselves. Yes, Ma'am ~ Yes, Sir. It absolutely makes a difference how you talk to yourself.
My girls who work at the store know that negative self talk is not allowed. I will call them out every single time For they'll be trying to do something on the computer and they'll mess up and they'll say, "oh, I should have known better" or "oh, I'm sorry", "I'm stupid" or oh,.... I'm like, uh-uh, uh-uh. You do not talk to yourself like that because the way you talk to yourself matters. You believe what you say about yourself more than what anybody else says about yourself. Think about that.
You can work in an environment where people think you are the absolute bomb diggity. They are constantly praising you. They are constantly building you up, telling you how grateful they are for you, and just being so kind. But if you don't believe that and in your mind, you're telling yourself, "oh, I should have done better". or "Oh, I can't believe I messed up again." "I should have done this better. I shouldn't have done this. If I could've done this," what a blah blah blah.
It's blah blah blah blah blah. That's what it is. It's garbage. You're putting garbage in and you're playing those old tapes through your mind over and over again, and you're gonna believe what you say about yourself instead of all these other people who think that you're fantastic. So you need to start watching how you talk and communicate to yourself.
You need to see what God has to say about you. God says that you are the righteousness of God in Christ. God says that you are His child. God says that you are redeemed. God says that you are chosen, that you are loved, That you are the apple of His eye. That you are protected. That you are a saint. God loves you and you have such tremendous value - more than you will ever realize because people..... even though we know that Christ died on the cross for us, we really cannot grasp what the immense cost that was for a perfect God who had never ever been separated from the father - for Jesus to come voluntarily to #1 , put up with us and #2 to so calmly and patiently snd for lack of better words, reverently took the crap that humanity gave Him at that time when He could have just blinked, snapped His fingers, or even just thought, Father, take em out - Zap em. I'm done and it could've been done but He didn't because He loves us and He did that for you. If you were the only human being left on this Earth, Jesus still would have come and died for you because you are that valuable.
To wrap this up, we need to learn not only in our own personal lives but in our businesses, in our careers, in our ministries to communicate with the Father. We need to learn to communicate with others and we need to learn to better communicate with ourselves because that communication builds trust with the Father, that communication builds trust with those we're serving and that communication builds trust in ourselves, ladies and gentlemen because if you don't trust in your abilities and your skills, you're not going to accomplish all that God wants you to do because you're going to be your own hindrance.
I fully believe we have got to communicate, communicate, communicate But we've got to learn to do it properly and we've got to learn to start with our communication with the Father.
I hope that this was helpful to you. I hope that you know how much I appreciate you and that you can take something that you read today, and either it reaffirms something you already know, it brought up something that you need to know or it's something that you can help share with someone else.
So until next time, my dear friend, remember to always strive to make an impact and not just an income. And remember to always look your best, do your best, and be your best.