Focus Shift...

Happy New Year to All!

As we all sit down to write out our goals and pursuits for the new year, I'd like to suggest an initiative for you to place near the top of your list.  That initiative is shifting your focus from being all about you and making a concerted effort to help someone else.  I don't mean taking someone on as a project, but genuinely taking an interest in the affairs of another and being that encouragement, that voice of reason, that shoulder to lean on or that listening ear when they need someone the most. 

Take some time to help someone else reach a goal in their life.

I was listening to an interview with Rick Warren the other night and he was saying how he and his wife tithe 90% and live off of 10%.  He said they would challenge themselves each year to tithe more.  I was like - WOW!  Please note that not all tithing has to be about money.  It can be your time - your talents.  So give more this year, but not just to yourself.

“I don't want to live in the kind of world where we don't look out for each other. Not just the people that are close to us, but anybody who needs a helping hand. I can't change the way anybody else thinks, or what they choose to do, but I can do my bit.” - Charles de Lint

“You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.”- John Bunyan

Luke 6:38 (NIV) - Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

If you take some time to help another, you'll have less time to worry, cry and complain about the shortcomings that may be present in your own life. 

2 Corinthians 9:7...Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.