Two Questions

Who'd you bless today?

This is an often asked question in our house.

Our hope is that our kids recognize that life isn't just about them.  It's not just about having fun and what they get out of school, an activity, an outing.  It's about blessing others and showing love to others  that they may experience the love of Jesus, the light and hope of Jesus.

We talk in the morning on the way to school and over the dinner table and before bed about ways that they have blessed others or ways that they might try to bless others.

Sometimes it works.

Sometimes it doesn't :)

But the question is there, planted in their minds.........who'd you bless today?

I added to it the other morning.  We were in the car, saying our morning prayer before school - praying for other village kids and their schools and that all our children be blessings to those they saw today.....and I felt that something needed to be added.

I felt that being a blessing was only one side of the coin and so I added a phrase, a question.

I asked that God open their eyes to who is blessing them, who is loving them today.  I asked the children to be on the lookout for people who are showing THEM Jesus.

I want them to be able to identify the blessings that they have in their lives, the people that are helping and loving them.  I want them to know that they TOO need to be blessed and that they are not above receiving love and care.  I want them to feel the love of Jesus in their life and I want them to know that it comes from being in community, from letting others in and not just doing it all by themselves.

Life isn't about giving and giving and giving until you are dried up and done in.......it's about opening yourself up to receive blessings so that in the overflow you may bless others.  And it's important to me that my children recognize that, that they see the all the many ways they are blessed and out of the overflow they are eager to share with others.

Only giving is just as seductive and dangerous as only taking.  Only giving leads to inflated ego and sense of self, it isolates you and leaves you lonely, it causes people to become bitter - asking where is MY due?  Only giving is a trap of the self-righteous.

And it's not one I want my children to fall into.

And so we ask.............who blessed YOU today? alongside who'd you bless?

You can't have one without the other or you become a lopsided Christian.

We are meant to bless and be blessed.

So................who'd you bless today?

Who blessed you?