Friday 16 May 2014

Be a Blessing: Guest Post

Today I'm delighted to introduce you to Mary Brack.



In my faith community/church we have a saying that came out of an extensive study we made through the Bible exploring God’s call on His people:

“Blessed to Be a Blessing”


As we journeyed through Scripture over many months we saw from beginning to end that God has always had a plan for His people to be a blessing to others.


In Genesis 12:2-3 it starts with God’s words to Abram (Abraham):

“I will make you into a great nation,
    and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
    and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
    and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
 
  will be blessed through you.”


Throughout this journey this saying began to develop a theology in us.  A theology, put in simple terms, is the doctrine or belief that forms your faith about something.  So the theology that began to develop for us was that God has blessed us for a greater purpose than just making us happy.  He has blessed us so that we will in turn bless other people.  God’s heart is for people.  He loves us and He loves to bless His people.  Blessing is His nature, and we are called to imitate and take on His nature.





I appreciated the comments by Brene Brown that Bernice shared with us in her introductory post on April 24.  She spoke of how simply having an attitude about something (in this case gratitude) does not make it an active practice in our lives.  I agree that simply having an attitude will not make something an action, but attitude is a very important part.  

Our attitude is formed by our theology, our belief about what we believe to be true, and our practice or actions flow out of what we believe ~ they flow out of our attitude.  So understanding and believing that God has called me to use the blessings He has given me to bless others will guide how I approach how I live and minister.  So rather than praying “Lord, bless me”, my prayer becomes “Lord, make me a blessing today.  Bless someone through me today”   Over time, then, my attitude and my actions begin to change as I am open to and look for ways to be a blessing to others.   It also changes how we view our stuff, our money, our time, our lives – all blessings from God, but like tithing, we are simply managers or stewards of the blessing God has given us.   Our time, our money, our stuff, our very lives, all belong to God and He has called us to use them in the way that pleases Him – use them to bless others.


Let’s make this real practical. What are blessings in your life that you can bless others with? And who can you bless? Some ideas:

Bless others with your:

  • Money
  • Time
  • Gifts
  • Talents
  • Compassion
  •  Love
  • Stuff

Bless:

  • your family
  • your neighbors
  • people in your church
  • people in your school or job
  • people you know
  • people you don’t know
  • the poor
  • the needy
  • people in crisis

The really incredible thing is that when we start to live life looking for ways to bless others, we find that we experience God’s blessings in new ways as well.

 Thank you so much Mary.  I love your take on the prompts.

4 comments:

  1. I love Mary's art! This is fabulous!

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  2. So very well said and so beautifully illustrated. It made me look at my own life and think about how I can be a blessing to others. Sometimes, in the midst of doing for others who can't do for themselves, we get caught up in the task. It is helpful to remember that we are being a blessing, which in turn will hopefully make it less of a chore.

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  3. This is a beautiful post. I am just starting to understand what being a blessing is to someone else. Such incredible encouragement.

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