But as I closed one of my Services and stood at the back of the church to greet people and shake hands (you know, all the preacher-nice stuff), one lady walked up to me - one who could easily be considered a matriarch of this church, and told me how I AM gentle and lovable, especially when I'm with the little children, and when I'm doing things like a baptism, there is something in my face.
I was very humbled by this. And at the same time, the previous blog posts I've written about the children I've baptized or sat up front with came to mind, or how the littlest of kids have taken over the Services and made it the most fun for me.
I also asked this woman to pass this along to a committee chairperson who would need to hear things like this - not to toot my horn, but so that when someone says "what is said", there is something more than "eh, he preaches a good sermon".
I've seen many humbling moments when love and caring for others is evident - making sure someone has time for their family and themselves, or checking on a person just to see how their day is going, or sending a note to say "hi", or like what happened in my case, recognizing those small things.
I once read how many positive reinforcements it takes to wipe out a negative. I don't remember the number, but I also recall that the number is compounded when a negative is something false or misleading.
In a world that's already so full or negatives, shouldn't we be focusing on positives?
What would happen is we focused ONLY on positives?
What if we stuck to only positive comments?
What could we accomplish if we only said positive things?
