OK, here are two true stories. Honest and truly, absolutely 100% completely genuine accounts of factual information.
The first: earlier today I was checking my Yahoo email and there was a banner ad from a credit card company that read something like “An Easier Way to Get Money to Teens”. Are you serious? I’m sure there potentially are situations for this idea, whatever it is, to be a good idea. But in general “an easier way to get money to teens” sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. As if through the years, teens have had difficulty figuring out ways to get money from their parents.
The only other thought I have is where was this financial solution for families 17 years ago, when it would have done me some good?
The second true story: early this week I was talking with a good friend about a little problem. A couple days later, things had actually gotten worse. I was beginning to get pretty bummed out about the whole thing. Then yesterday I got an email from him that read in part, “I feel like God put you on my heart this morning, so I thought I would send you a short message. I am lifting you up to God regularly and I know He will deliver.”
Now, I realize there’s nothing particularly powerful about those words themselves, but I can tell you that receiving that note absolutely was powerful. It made a huge difference, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. After he got the idea to send me the note it probably took this guy about 2 minutes to type that message. If he had never sent it I would never have known the difference, and he most likely would have put it out of his mind after a few minutes. But that’s not what happened. I was worth 2 minutes of my friend’s time, and both of us were blessed.
I understand that we can’t email every single person that pops into our head every day. I also realize that I’m not the first person to receive a bit of encouragement from a friend. But I know I can do a better job of intentionally demonstrating to people they are important. When we give and receive love, there’s really no downside.