30 Days of Love - Day 28: My Personal Experiences, Part One

Day 28: My Personal Experiences, Part One

(Click here for Day 27)

“I will praise You, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works.” Psalm 9:1

I know that I always find encouragement in hearing how God’s Word has worked in other people’s lives, so I wanted to share some personal examples with all of you, in the hopes of doing the same!

I want to start off with what I view as the first time I realized that walking in love actually works. At the time, I just saw it as “killing them with kindness,” but even with just that, I was able to experience victory.

Decades ago, I was working in an office, and one of the girls there didn’t like me. To this day I’m not really sure why. It doesn’t matter. What does matter, is that instead of treating her rudely in return, I decided to be nice to her. I remembered Scriptures about heaping coals of kindness on people’s heads (see Proverbs 25:21-22 and Romans 12:20), and figured I’d give it a shot. (I didn't have quite the right heart attitude, but hey, I was actually trying!)

It worked. The results weren’t obvious immediately, but by the time I left that office, we actually enjoyed each other’s company. Just knowing and having faith in what God said in one teeny bit of Scripture, I got the victory, and so did she. I love how God went beyond just a more peaceful work environment and gave us each a friend. I haven’t seen here in a very long time, but the thought of her always makes me smile. Imagine what God’s going to do in your life with all that you’ve been learning?

Fast forward about a decade, and there’s this woman who is mad at me. She told other people why she was upset with me, but never came to me directly. The sad part is that her reason for being mad at me was something she had assumed to be true, but was entirely false. She thought I had slighted her, when indeed I had not. I made a handful of efforts to mend fences, but received no response. I still pray for her and love her dearly despite not having any contact with her, and I’m still open to reconciliation.

There was another office I worked at where God pointed out to me that I was talking too much and interrupting another person’s work. (Maybe this is the reason the girl from my first example didn’t like me? Moving along…) Oops! I felt bad for the many months of yakking I had put my co-worker through. Then came the challenge—the point where I actually had to change my actions. Boy, was that a struggle at first. I kept catching myself mid-blather! Again, by acting on the direction God gave me, someone else was blessed in the process—with silence. (You can laugh, go ahead!)

I’ll have some more for you tomorrow!

Homework:

I want you to take some time to think about what you want your relationships to look like in the future. Are your actions and attitudes toward others taking you in that direction?