Love Just One

If you can't feed 100 people, feed just one. 

-Mother Teresa

I had a conversation with a friend the other day about the state of our world. Here's a script of our conversation. 

"He is amazing" my friend (talking about the boy I babysit) 

"I know! Ah kid's resilience and strength blow my mind" me

"They think they can do anything, so they do!"

Exactly! They've never been told or experienced anything different, so why would they act any different?

I wish people in this world would see that and quit discouraging kids at such a young age. 

Ah I know! But in a world where all that matters is self-gain this is unfortunately going to be an issue. 

It sucks our world has to be this way. 

In this conversation I was convicted of this: It does suck that our world has to be that way - that kids get discouraged, that it's a world all about self-gain, but there is hope! We are the ones who can change it by the way we carry ourselves, by the way we treat people, by the way we raise our kids, etc. 

I was on a retreat this weekend, and surrendered to the Lord many areas of my life and heart that I had just buried. Past hurts, past wounds that I started to just suppress. The desires of my heart, the actions, and seeing so many ways I am imperfect, but surrendering all of them to the Lord and accepting the mercy Christ offers us. Leaving this retreat we had a conversation about where to go from here. We were impacted, we found so much freedom in this 'spring cleaning' of our hearts - how can we carry this into our lives? How can we seek to more fully share the freedom the Lord desires to give us with the people around us?

Love them. Love them unconditionally. Love them selflessly. Love them with all that you have and all that you are. Show a genuine interest in them. I so often get so overwhelmed by the hurt of people in this world. If I had to pick one thing I am most passionate about it would be love - or the lack of it in this world. The number of people who go around believing they're a hopeless case, they're worthless, they lack dignity, they lack value - the number of people in this world who experience these feelings break my heart - and I wish I had the love in the world to give to each person, to let each person know they are loved. But alas, that is not  possible - so what to do?

Love. Just. One. 

Mother Teresa said if you can't feed 100 people, feed just one. We can make an impact in this world by loving the people around us, by loving just one person, by showing a genuine interest in them. My friend recently told a story about having a conversation with one of her classmates and showing a genuine interest in his life and how shocked he was by her asking these questions, seeking answers. She impacted that person. She let him know he is loved by at least one person in this world. 

I am thoroughly convinced that the smallest gift of love from each of us can positively impact the world. We may not see the difference, we may not see the change, but the impact is real. The impact is there.