BLESSING OTHERS

Many of you know that I have worked with families, marriages, and individuals for many years. Some refer to my work as “counseling” but I usually don’t. Instead, I’m more like a teacher or life coach. It’s sort of like this: We know that the Pharisees were very religious people. They worshipped God, read and memorized Scripture, prayed, and attended to every religious matter, feast, and festival. They strictly adhered to the Jewish traditions and laws. Even so, Jesus was very critical of them. In fact, Jesus said to us, “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Well, I’m not sure we can get more religious than the Scribes and Pharisees but our righteousness certainly can be better. So, our eternity seems to have more to do with our righteous faith life than it does our formal religion. That is the area that I offer my assistance: I work with people’s life challenges via the faith life.

I don’t charge for my work and neither do I accept reimbursement for gas money etc. I have been offered a cruise, vacations, extravagant gifts, and money as articles of appreciation. I’ve declined them all. However, I have received wonderful cards, emails, letters and such. This past week a new form of appreciation was extended to me that kind of shocked me. A couple that I’m working with told me that they scheduled a Catholic Mass to be said in my honor at their church. I certainly don’t deserve it but I’ll take it!! Anytime someone wants to bless me for any reason or no reason…I’ll take it!!

We have many opportunities to bless other people. We can do it with a smile, a phone call, or an email etc. If we stop and think about it, we could probably think of times that someone did something for us which still blesses our lives or warms our heart. It’s good to remember those times and then look for opportunities to bless someone else. Doing something or being someone for another not only blesses them but it also blesses us.