If you are changing, others will notice

This morning I was thinking about the word “change” and what quantifies change in a persons life. As a follower of Christ, if I am not changing each day than I know I am not becoming the person God needs me to be. I slip into a stagnant relationship with Jesus that becomes less relevant to a hurting world and makes my life meaningless. There is already a great work that Jesus did in me when i first accepted him but my flesh always will want to stay stagnant not change. The key thing that separates a successful and valuable person from everyone else is the ability to change. If I think I am changing then the people I come in contact with, especially those closest to me, should notice something different about me. More patient, listening better, smiling more, etc. A great litmus test in your life can be the reaction of others to you, positive or negative. One thing my dad always told me was that you can learn something from anyone, even something negative and seeing what you don’t want to do or be like. I really don’t believe there is anyone on the face of the earth who wants to be the personal illustration for a dad telling his son, “now THAT, my boy, is what you do NOT want to do/be in this life.” Yet, we can all recognize people in the course of our lives that we would consider “bad examples.” Change is a beautiful thing but not automatic. The only way we can truly change into the person we need to be for this world is by submitting ourselves to God but also to those who we trust and want to see us succeed. None of us have all the qualities in this life to finish up living just the way we are. If I call myself a follower of Jesus, I need to be asking God to help my actions line up with the change Christ has already brought inside of me. Maybe there is something to the verses in the Bible that talk about iron sharpening iron and that I am being changed from glory to glory. The thing I will work on today is my will lining up with those promises of change. 🙂 Have a great weekend.