While we can’t change our conditions or how individuals treat us, we can pick the frame of mind we grasp. When we take a gander at Jesus’ life, we see a portion of life’s hardest circumstances and conditions. He led a wide range of individuals, came eye to eye with Satan, and most importantly, died naked and beaten on a cross. In every one of these conditions, He had a decision. He could have been guarded and vindictive yet was adoring and humble. His frame of mind changed what He had the option to see, experience, and do.
For a few, choosing our frame of mind begins with choosing our words. Rather than saying, “I need to,” we begin saying, “I get to.” I find myself correcting my words more than 20 times a day! I was asked how my day was going and instead of responding with complaints, I responded with, “I am blessed…” – to be able to be help someone else without receiving anything in return. Changing our words, changes our perspective, which changes our attitude from grumbling to kindness. For others, it is about choosing who and what we listen to. It is so easy and normal in our society to get sucked into gossip or complaining, and these conversations will always leave us with a negative attitude and perspective.
No circumstance should direct how we respond. Our attitude is a choice that could powerfully change the existence we live. Have you ever scrolled through social media and found that people are complaining about how they helped someone in the past and that this person is unable to help them with their current situation, so now they are choosing to stop helping people in the future? That is how powerful our attitudes are. The negative attitude in that situation has had detrimental effects.
And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. 35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.
Luke 6:34-35
To change our attitude, we must think about the numerous advantages of helping others. When we help others, we enable ourselves to dispose of negative feelings like outrage or sadness, diminish pressure and stress, increment delight, improve our physical and emotional wellness, recharge our feelings of expectation about what’s conceivable, improve our sense of self-worth, and associate ourselves with like-minded, positive attitude individuals. Helping people is a sound propensity to build up, regardless of what conditions we might experience. While our attention is on blessing others, we’ll find that God blesses us in a wide assortment of ways.
You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 5:13-16 ESV
Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
1 John 3:18 ESV
It’s anything but difficult to come up with heaps of reasons regarding why we would prefer not to help someone: it’s inconvenient, it pushes us out of our comfort zone, we don’t feel like we have the extra time or energy, we didn’t get help when we were in the same situation, or we are just passionless when it comes to other individuals needs. We must appeal to God to abstain from rationalizing, and request that God give us the empathy we need to genuinely think about the anguish others may be going through and the inspiration we need to support them.
When we give a portion of our assets to help other people, we free ourselves from the distraction of our very own needs. We start to trust God more with our needs, allowing us to lay our burdens at His feet. Additionally, we satisfy a greater amount of God’s purposes for our lives, which will bring us delight. Helping others triggers the mind to release endorphins that reason sentiments of fulfillment and bliss. We get the “Givers Glow” when we are pleased and filled up by helping others in need.
What can you do to give a portion of your assets to help someone today? Start a ripple effect of the “Givers Glow”. It can be something simple like a hand written note, or larger like paying for the person in line ahead of you.
A Little Bit More About Kristen
Christian/Spiritual Writer and Self-Help Mentor and Coach, Kristen Newman, has a passion for helping other women who have experienced a wide variety of challenges in their lives; eg. addictions, death, traumas, abuse, and mental illness. Having gone through many of those experiences herself and receiving the hard-won spiritual gift of being an Empath/Intercessor, it is her mission to show other women that healing and living a joyful, fulfilling life is possible.
You can find her at her Facebook page
