Living Life by Design

A two minute read for busy professionals to start their day (Monday-Friday) with something positive, inspiring and thought provoking.

It’s been my habit over the years that when I’m alone, out shopping or running errands, and I’m approached by someone asking for money, I respond, “what do you need the money for?” It’s almost always the case they respond, “for food.” With that response I offer to buy them a meal.

Each person you meet and every situation that confronts you is, in a sense, a test. How are you going to respond to the needs of the people around you, and the situations you find yourself in?

We must seek the right words and the right responses to all those in need. Whatever we must be motivated by ‘compassion’ (Luke 7:13, AMP).

Even through my best efforts and pure motives, it’s almost impossible to avoid criticism when I write about giving to beggars and panhandlers. As Aristotle said, ‘The only way to avoid criticism is to do nothing, say nothing and be nothing.’ Whatever we do, some people will find fault. 

Jesus was not put off by criticism. He says in Psalm 7:35, ‘But wisdom is proved right by all her children’. Perhaps he means that, in the end, wisdom (and Jesus’ actions) will be proved by the results, or as my grandmother would say, ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating’. 

God makes us all different. Jesus and John the Baptist were very different but they were both motivated by compassion in spite of all the criticism (‘…like aloes planted by the Lord, like cedars beside the waters’.), they were, as we should strive to be, ‘wisdom’s children’. 

Today, I encourage you to go out of your way to show someone in need compassion, not with just words of encouragement, but also in a physical, tangible way. 

#ProudArmyDad #82ndAirborne #BlueStarFamily #LLBD #LivingLifeByDesign