Bringing the Best out of People

Recently, I've had the opportunity to start a group on facebook called "The Greatest of These Is Love" and then found, along with another facebook friend of mine, a group called "We Love Joel Osteen".

The first group, (I call the LOVE group), was born out of adversity. I had a thread on facebook called "Spiritual Sisters" in which some of members began to quarrel. I tried to mediate but that didn't work. Finally, I just realized that the only way that they were going to be in harmony was through love. "Love is kind."
(I Corinthians 13:4) These ladies were so kind in their hearts that I knew they could eventually find that harmonizing core. I started to think about love the way it is described in I Corinthians 13 and the chapter ends with "the greatest of these is love" so that is what I named the group. The ladies are members so I am affirming that love will be the catalyst needed to bring peace and harmony to them. The group grew to 224 members in just two weeks. Joel says that "there's no greatest investment in life than being a people builder. Relationships are more important than our accomplishments."

The second group was a Joel Osteen group that had been abandoned. It had 42 people in it but no administrator and a kind of hateful video on it. I liked the name (WE LOVE JOEL OSTEEN) because I really do love the positivity in this man. We've been discussing his books for more than a year on this blog so I thought why not become administrator and share ideas from the blog with the group. A good friend of mine, who was an officer in the LOVE group, had already made herself an administrator and asked for help with the group. We removed the hateful video and replaced it with some of Joel's sermons uploaded from youtube and invited people to join. It now has 71 people in only one week!

I'm not telling you about these groups to boast. I realize that only God's hand could have accomplished this, but I do feel like there was a purpose for keeping the blog alive now. I knew all along that even when participation waned, I had this need to express God's word and the inspiration I was receiving in my daily life from the bible and Joel's books, and other inspirational writing. I just wondered when He was going to multiply the fruit. While in His good timing, it has come to pass. Joel says, "Our attitude should be: Who can I encourage today? Who can I build up? How can I improve somebody's life?" We have the power of the Most High God inside us. We need to encourage people to grow to their full stature as it says to do in the bible. Sometimes a person just needs a spark of hope. People will respond if we really care about them. We can never bring out the best in anybody if we condemn or criticize them or verbally beat them down. We can only bring out someone's best by loving them. That's what Joel does, and like Jesus, he is often criticized for it. He just keeps keeping on. Sure he is rich, but having money is no sin. Many people say that Joel actually saved them from taking their lives when they were in the middle of a deep depression. Our society has enough cynics, critics, and faultfinders out there, and Jesus was not one of them. Neither is Joel. Now I am not comparing Jesus and Joel to bring out controversy. I realize that Jesus was the Son of God, and Joel is an instrument of God. So are we all instruments of God. The bible says "iron sharpens iron." We can be like Jesus and encourage one another. At the same time, we need to respect all our brothers and sisters in the Lord because He works in them, just as He works in us.

Have a great week and don't forget to vote! This bald eagle is a reminder that our country is "one nation under God".