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"Sometimes I couldn’t hold back my anger and I
lashed out at my staff in the office." A disciple
working in the marketplace shared his struggle after hearing
my talk on how Christians could be influencers. I told him,
"In fact, your staff will not demand you to be perfect,
but if you realized later that you have been wrong and you
apologize to them, in that way you would have made an impact
in their lives."
Often times, in our subconscious mind, we think of a
spirit-filled Christian as someone with a halo above his
head, clad in white clothes with a glowing face. Yet in
reality, we are just ordinary people in flesh and blood. We
are capable of making mistakes, at times we fail, get
discouraged and become weak. However, through God’s
enabling, if we would admit our fault when we are wrong and
are willing to improve, we can stand up again when we have
fallen. We can have hope in the midst of discouragement, and
be victorious despite our weaknesses. Then we will be able
to influence the people around us as we testify to God’s
work in our lives.
Sometime last December, I was physically tired and my
temper was running short. I raised my voice and scolded my
children when they misbehaved. My eldest daughter asked,
"Daddy why did you talk to us so loudly?"
"Because daddy is very tired and angry," I
replied. She then responded, "Well, you told us not to
raise our voice even when we are angry, didn’t you?"
As a matter of fact, I did teach them to speak in gentleness
in dealing with sibling rivalry. No one should raise her
voice in spite of her anger. There and then I felt so
ashamed of myself and told her, "Daddy was wrong, I’m
sorry."
We do not have to act as if we are
perfect Christians, but we must be real in our life journey.
My second daughter En Yun is in Standard One this year.
Two days before school started, we held a celebration night
for her. My wife prepared En Yun’s favourite sausages for
dinner that night. After the meal, we told her to put on her
school uniform.
Next we took out our photo album and went through those
pictures showing each year of her life. Then we took turns
to share what we appreciate about her. Finally, we gathered
around her and prayed for her to have a wonderful time of
learning and growing in the Lord. Lastly we celebrated with
a packet of potato chips and rice biscuits. One week later,
she asked me, "Why did you want to celebrate for
me?" I believe what we did for her made a lasting
impression on her, and it remains a beautiful memory marker.
It is only this year that we are learning to be
intentional in making lasting impressions in our children’s
life. We did not have a celebration party when our eldest
girl started Standard One. You see, we love her the same but
we failed to leave in her any pleasant memory because we
failed to plan intentionally. Similarly, being an
influencer, we may love the Lord and our family and friends,
yet we will still remain where we are after many years if we
fail to intentionally make plans to reach out as well as
carry out those plans.
We must be intentional in making
plans to grow and to influence others in this life journey.
We hope to build a generation of influencers for Christ
through a wholistic "Life Mentoring System". We
are imperfect beings; we cannot assume that we are able to
overcome everything on our own. We need a mentor to
encourage us as well as to be accountable to. In turn, we
too can become mentors to other influencers through our
encouragement and their accountability to us. Let us
continue to grow each year and put our plans into action.
Though life is full of challenges, let us not give up
growing towards being an influencer for Christ who pleases
God.
We need to be accountable to one or
two persons so that we can grow intentionally.
Let us begin to pray that God will give us one or two
persons with whom we can be mutually encouraged and be
accountable to. Together let us move on with anticipation in
this life journey.
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