I Have a Voice!

Have you ever felt like you can make a difference or that you WANT to make a difference? I do and I have for as long as I can remember. At a very young age I would imagine being a singer, an actress, a lawyer, doctor, or even a beauty pageant queen. My imagination had no limit and I never put boundries around the possibilities of "Who I wanted to be when I grew up?" To top it off, my dad would say confidently, "Honey Girl, you can be anything you want to be!" And I believed him!

Here I am at age 37, which is about as old as I could imagine being back then. I just have to say that my perspective on what it means to make a difference has changed drastically. Back then, my idea of being famous or rich was the only way to make a difference, but today I believe that making a difference is made through simple acts of kindness. Let me ask you... When is the last time to you made a conscious decision to care? It is amazing what you see, do, and go-out-of-your-way-for when you are intentionally looking for ways to be kind or show someone that you care. I find myself being patient in the line at the grocery store, I am courteous to others through the use of manners, and I smile more, a lot more!

Last winter, I was stopped at a stoplight and I saw a mom with 2 very young children walking on the sidewalk beside my car. It was a cold winter day and even though they were bundled up in winter jackets, neither child had mittens. With the windchill, the temperature that day was well below zero and I felt bad for those little ones. Instinctively, I reached over and grabbed a pair of gloves that my own kids left on the back seat and just as I began rolling my window down, the light turned green and traffic started moving. The pressure of the other car's acceleration, the ackwardness of throwing gloves out of my window, the possibility of being rejected, or the embarrassment I might cause for the mother, ultimately prevented me from following through.

I believe that thinking is worthless without the act of follow through and in this case, my failure to act led to deep regret. Pride, haste, fear, and doubt all played a part in my inability to execute and from now on, I want to LIVE OUT LOUD and put the needs of others ahead of my own. Phillipians 2:3 says, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves." So why not take God's word literally. Jesus wasn't a crowd pleaser, he did profound acts of kindness, and he didn't live to please himself or what was socially acceptable. Jesus did what was right and didn't wait for the proper time and place to do it either.

The moral of the story is that moment by moment, day by day, we can make a difference through the decisions that we make. If we take ourselves out of the picture and put the needs of others before our own, we may not be in the spotlight, on centerstage, or cashing in on monetary rewards, but the value gained from a simple act of kindness is immeasurable.

So today... Live for others. Live out loud!