Speak life

Do you ever see someone, and you just…

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Fess up.

Thought so.

I admit, there are certain people that I do try to avoid. You know that phrase “Be a fountain, not a drain”? I TRY to avoid drains. I want to surround myself with people who speak life into me. People who are just so encouraging and delightful to be around. Nothing is worse than having a great day and having someone suck the life out of it. Or, even worse, when you are having a really hard time and someone tries to compete; acting as though their day is so much worse than yours.

You know the kind of people I am talking about. I am sure everyone can picture at least one.

I am challenging you while challenging myself. I often wonder if I am one of those drains that people desperately try to avoid. It has been such a rotten, horrible, terrible year that I feel like a drain. Someone will ask how my family is. Oh, you know.. my dad has cancer. My aunt has cancer. My uncle has to re-learn how to read. On the list goes. I don’t usually answer that way unless it is my best friend asking how everyone is. They know all of the situations though, so they want an update, not the depressing list. 😉

I want to be a fountain. I want to be one of those people who just radiates the love of Jesus. Someone who just shines. I don’t want to shine for my own glory though. Not at all. I want people to see Jesus in me without even having to speak to me. I want God to get all of the glory.

My kids have been sick. It is the middle of July. I haven’t been to church since June because this virus just won’t go away. It has left me with A LOT of time to think about things. This has been one of the main things I have been thinking about.

I have tried to surround myself with people who are uplifting to me. I need that. We all do. That is not to say that I will not speak to those “drains”, but I do try to limit the amount of time. I try to speak some life into them. However, once the whirlpool starts swirling to suck me down, I try to politely end the conversation. Having little kids makes that pretty easy, because I usually have to chase them down.

How do you handle situations like this? What have you found to be the most effective way to stop someone from sucking the life and energy out of your day?