Love in Action

In a day and age where everyone is eaten up with “Self” (selfitis),  it is a rarity to find people who consider others above themselves. My husband is one of those people! I didn’t know how self-absorbed I was until I married him 30 years ago. He has taught me much on the subject just by being thoughtful and considerate in front of me. He lived it in front of me on a daily basis, teaching me how to “get out of myself!” Growing up with four other siblings in the house, it was every man for himself. Whereas my husband was an only child and you would think he would have been raised self-centered, but quite the contrary. His mother was the epitome of thoughtfulness, a true gem. She taught him true love, to think of others above yourself. She was always thinking about how someone else would feel, what they would like, or how she could help them. This is God’s kind of love, true love, not selfish love like man gives, only wanting something in return. True love gives only thinking about the other person, not about themselves. They are the last thing on their mind. We need more people like this in the earth to model true love!

Be Considerate of Others

What is thoughtfulness or being considerate? What does it look like? According to www.dictionary.com the definition for considerate is:

1. showing kindly awareness or regard for another’s feelings, circumstances, etc.
2. thoughtful towards other people
3. carefully considered, deliberate
4. synonyms: kind, patient, concerned

Get You Off Your Mind

Every day we run across many opportunities to be thoughtful and considerate. We just may not be aware of them. What does a considerate act look like?

• Opening a door for someone else
• Helping an elderly person with their groceries and putting the cart away
• Giving someone else the next available seat in the restaurant while you wait
• Not hitting someone else’s car and scratching the paint when you open your car door in a parking lot
• Offering to help a new mother and watch her older children
• Cooking food a family who just lost a loved one
• Cleaning house or mowing the lawn for someone who has been in the hospital for a while
• Not overtaking the conversation, but being interested in listening to others talk
• Cleaning up after yourself, and not leaving a mess for others
• Not talking on the speakerphone when you have several other people in the office with you (so they can’t concentrate on their work)
• Turning the lights off and the air conditioner up when you check out of a hotel room to cut down on electricity costs (you would appreciate this if you were the owner)
• Helping someone else clean up their mess when they accidentally tripped and dropped their tray of food
• Not trying to air someone else’s dirty laundry and make them look bad

You can see the list is endless. Hopefully, this will give you enough ideas and things to become aware of.

We naturally think about ourselves, what we want, how we feel, what we like and don’t like. It comes like natural instinct to us that we don’t even know we are doing it. As a matter of fact, we have to really think about to catch ourselves in the act of being “self-absorbed.” On the other hand, we have to deliberately go out of our way to think about how we can help others or how they might be feeling. Both of these seem a little “unnatural” at first, until we do them over and over again. Then they become our “new natural.”

Give and You Shall Receive!

You might be asking, “so why would I want to retrain myself to think about others?” In other words, “What’s in it for me?” (our natural selfish inclination) That’s a good question! Mark 4:24 (MSG) tells us, “Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity.” If you want someone else to be thoughtful and considerate to you, then you need to be thoughtful and considerate toward others. If you want to attract friends, be friendly, right? We forget this principle of the Law of Attraction, but life works like a boomerang. Whatever we give, will come back to us! Whatever you want, give it away. Like planting and watering seeds, you plant enough and you will reap a harvest. Start planting today so you can reap a harvest of good things coming your way!