Please Listen !!

In the spirit of striving, fighting and not giving up, you need to be careful as an individual. This is a solemn caution that I was moved to share with you, my friend. If you haven’t read my last post, please check it out “Keep striving, fighting and clawing but never give up” because that will build a platform to always remain positive.

My body cringes anytime I hear that anyone connected to me went through a period of downtime, rejection and even depression. By ‘someone connected to me’, I mean someone who is in my close circle and within my sphere of influence. It’s always so painful to realise that I missed an opportunity to give them support or succour during their bad experience and they went through it alone.

A friend of mine who read my last post “Keep striving, fighting and clawing but never give up”, mentioned how she was encouraged to persevere and not entertain the idea of quitting. She even shared it with a friend of hers that spoke about depression. On hearing this, I remembered that depression comes with everything evil, and the top on the list is death. So I had a moment of reflection and I began to ask myself certain questions, one of which was this: how come my friends go through such things and I’m oblivious to it. The answer that popped at me was that people are busy or do not care, or have their own issues to deal with and don’t want to add more stress. Unfortunately, that’s the truth but I recently discovered from personal experiences that when my friends or people around me are happy and in peace, it reduces the number of things that gets me worried and even sad.

My friend, I urge you to be careful how you talk to your friends, mentees and even people that make attempts to speak to you about troubling situations of their life. It’s not easy to open up to someone, so when people bare their souls open before you, count it a privilege to be there for someone.

Someone might say, “but I don’t know what to say because I might have not experienced such.” Well, I agree with you, but you can always look them in the eye and tell them that they’ll be alright. Even if all you can do is listen and encourage the person with a smile or a hug, that’s still a strong show of support that goes a long way.

The paraphrased portion of the Bible that comes to mind is in

Mark‬ ‭12:31‬ ‭GNB‬‬

“….Love your neighbour as you love yourself….”

I believe if we take this scripture literally, this world of course will be a better place. Be intentional about the people around you. Keep them in your mind and heart as often as you can and reach out often to know how they’re doing, and not with the everyday ‘how are you?’ question to which they answer ‘I’m fine’ almost like a reflex action. A strategy I have been using for a few years to let a person know that I care is to start by asking basic questions like have you eaten? If not, why? Then I either give my money or even food if I have to make sure the person leave me happy. Other questions about family could come in handy. I discovered that these questions show that you care. 

On a final note, it is important for you to know that these people are not looking for sympathy from you but if they ever mention anything about what they are going through, and you don’t take it seriously, you may not get a second chance to help them. You Can Be The Answer To Someone’s Prayer!

I was praying one day and the Spirit of the Lord told me “anytime you don’t do the things I ask you to do, I won’t be angry but instead I’ll be disappointed that you missed an avenue to be blessed”. That humbled me.

Galatians‬ ‭6:9‬ ‭GNB‬‬

“So let us not become tired of doing good; for if we do not give up, the time will come when we will reap the harvest.”

Therefore I urge you my friend don’t get tired of making a difference.