THURSDAY: GIVE YOUR BLESSINGS

“Be generous with kindly words, especially about those who are absent.”

Poet, novelist and playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Words are very powerful. You can bless people or curse them with words, looks and gestures.

Today is the day to look at how you use your words and non-verbals: Do you use them to bestow blessings or to criticize, belittle, drag down and destroy? Do you give people the benefit of the doubt or assume the worst?

Say nothing today that is not positive or kind about others. Especially if they are not in the room. Say or do only things that lift others or situations up or fill them with light.

Many problems, dramas and difficulties are set up in workplaces and families because people talk about others behind their backs. This is so destructive, and we do it all in the name of “being objective!” No, we are not! Most of us are doing it with a mean spirit, to prove we are in the right and they are the wrong.

A generous spirit will not complain, gossip and discuss flaws while another person is not there—or when they are there, either! A generous spirit looks on others with grace and patience and does not judge. If God judged us as we judge others, and metered out blessings based on our behavior, I bet most of us would be given very few.

I had never heard the phrase, “Bless his or her heart!” before I arrived in Texas. And it took some time to understand that the meaning was not always literal. Avoid saying bless his or her heart unless you really mean it. Said without sincerity, this can be nasty, spiteful and harmful. Just because you smile as you say something nasty doesn’t take away the sting.

Check your workplace and home for gossip and back-biting today. If you find it, walk away from it and choose not to be involved. (Though there are times when we have to do or say something to end a bad situation or protect others.) If you are the instigator of gossip or back-biting—stop! Never again are you going to gossip, stab, or “discuss” anyone else.

Always be a blessing to others and if you can’t, then say or think nothing! Find a way to bless those around you, even if you don’t like them. Ask yourself, “How could I be a blessing to….?” And then do it with the right heart and generous spirit. At some level, that person deserves it, even if you think that they don’t. Maybe the blessing would be that you ask that person for a meeting so you can discuss “your differences” in a mature, adult way so the whole workplace (not just you two) can have more peace and harmony.

One dictionary definition of blessings is “Something promoting or contributing to happiness, well-being, or prosperity; a boon.” What can you do today that will promote or contribute to someone else’s happiness, well-being, prosperity, their success, joy or sense of worth? How can you be a “boon” to them today? How can you help someone feel loved and to love themselves better?

Ask God how you can bless others as He blesses you – stay in the flow.

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