I was recently speaking to a friend who (rightfully so) felt annoyed at someone who was not being appreciative of her kind gestures. It’s quite frustrating when someone takes your niceness for granted, right? As a result, she felt that she should stop being so kind.
Friend: I was thinking maybe I do too much sometimes. I have to chill. But making people feel special is in my DNA.
Me: The way someone responds to how you walk in your purpose should not dictate whether or not you continue to walk in it… That sounds like a quote but I just made that up! Haha 🙂
But seriously, like she said, if it’s in your DNA, being kind is literally part of what makes you who you are. Not doing what comes naturally to you in this instance, is giving the ungrateful person power over your gift. It’s easier to give that advice to someone than it is to apply it to your own life but I can relate to this in a different scenario. I’ve shared it here before but I nearly stopped blogging when I realized that I wasn’t getting as many views on the blog or engagement on social media as I thought I should be. What then would I tell the Lord when He would ask me what I did with the talents He gave me?
So many times we rob our communities of the talents we possess because we don’t feel appreciated, because the work gets hard, or because we don’t have a large audience applauding. With that mindset, God can’t really trust us to carry out bigger assignments because we aren’t committed to seeing the work to completion. James 1: 2-4 advises us to:
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
Even for the most mature Christian, this is not a walk in the park by any stretch of the imagination. But we can allow God to renew our minds to see things from His perspective. So when we’re frustrated and unappreciated, when we’re not in the mood, and even when nobody claps for us, let’s keep doing what we’re called to do. “Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
One last thing: Matching someone’s energy is a concept that has been popularized by many memes and self proclaimed relationship gurus on the internet. This concept does not make sense for Christians because we are called to be set apart, to be a light in the darkness. With that said, someone’s actions should not determine your reaction. Your actions and reactions should show that you’re a follower of Christ long before your words come into play so let’s not give others that much power over us.
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