Amateurs Do It Best

Amateurs Do It Best

I do not want an amateur operating on my Pancreas or Thyroid Gland. There I prefer a professional, for certain. But when it comes to care and kindness, the friendliness and appreciation parts of life, a person who isn't getting paid may be the best.

The word "amateur" comes from the Latin word amore' meaning "to love". So an accurate understanding of what an amateur is is one who does it for the love of it, rather than for money.

Even in the world of helping there is a need for professional care. However if the amateurs of this world would mobilize and reach out to hurting people a lot more, less professional assistance would be needed.

Amateurs totally underestimate their value, so they hang back. Amateurs discount what they do, so they stay home.

Loving-kindness in the form of phone calls, visits, notes, smiles, words of encouragement or appreciation change body chemistry for the better. Spirit lifting words are spirit lifting and a buoyed spirit generates positive enzymes and chemistry. In other words they heal. People trust amateurs when they show love. That is why amateurs do it better.

Praying Personally for Another

Praying Personally for Another

Some of the guidelines for praying for someone with whom you are talking to face to face, or on the telephone, are these:

1. Trust that the love and energy of God is flowing through you.
2. Pay close attention to the person. Avoid distractions.
3. Usually holding their hands, when speaking the prayer, is a helpful connection.
4. Speak to God about the person’s concern or challenge. You are talking to God about what the person is experiencing and needing. For example: “Dear Lord, Barry is very worried about his son….”--- Open your prayer in whatever way you are used to beginning. Then present the person to God along with his central concern.
5. Use feeling words. That is, talk to God about how Barry is emotionally—“worried”, “fearful” “anxious” “sad” “lonely” etc. He may not tell you his feelings. You can usually guess after they describe what their prayer need centers on.
6. Use his name several times.
7. Limit the prayer to two or three minutes, maximum.
8. Conclude with a brief summary, in Jesus’ name.

Examples of Prayers:

For an aged person-“Thank you Lord for Brenda’s many years of life, and for how she has blessed those around her, with her kindness. She is now feeling alone and worried and insecure. Walk with her now in a special way so she knows she is loved and valued. Give her a strong sense of security and peace. May your arms embrace her and hold her, so her days and nights are comfortable and even joyful. Thank you Lord for caring for your precious child, Brenda. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

For someone very ill-“Lord Jesus Greta needs your healing presence today. She is worried and scared about the cancer recently identified. She needs your healing power to overcome this illness she is fighting. May your love and grace flow into her and restore her. Renew and strengthen her confidence, as she receives her medical treatment. May she trust that healing is happening, and the cancer is shrinking. May Greta feel your arms around her and your love healing her in the care she is receiving. In Jesus name we pray, AMEN.

What Prayer Looks Like

What Prayer Looks Like

I visualize prayer like an enormous triangle. The top peak is God, and the extreme bottom left point is the one speaking the prayer. The third, and remaining, point is the man or woman for whom a prayer is being said. Then I visualize the bottom two lines going out from the one offering prayer. One goes up to God. The other extends, on the horizontal level, to the one in need. I look up to God, and over to the one for whom the prayer is being spoken.
Love/Energy Flowing From God
I see two lines flowing from down God. One goes to the one being prayed for, the other goes back down to me, the pray-er. The line that goes to the one in need is God’s energy and love streaming to that person. The line that goes from God to me is God’s love and energy flowing back to the one in prayer. From there, from me, God’s love and energy goes out toward the target person, for whom supplication and intercession is being offered.
Flowing Through Me Too
The astounding part of this picture is God’s healing love flowing through me, the one doing the praying. The help doesn’t exclusively come down directly from God to the hurting person. It does, but it also comes straight through me, the one calling on God, for the needed help.
Visualize the Person
When praying for someone, if I am not in their presence, it is always helpful to conjure up a mental picture of him, or her. I see them in my mind. I think of them in such a way that I can visualize them rather clearly. This may then be multiplying the loving energy of God, that is flowing toward them. It streams directly from God, and also through me.

Say "No" to the Ubiquitous Cell-phone

LEARN TO SAY “NO” TO THE UBIQUITOUS CELL-PHONE

A small group of friends were huddled together at a table munching goodies and drinking coffee. One of the eight had begun to tell a sad story about her married daughter, who had a still-birth and slipped into deep depression. She was a little ways into telling of the ordeal when a cell-phone rang.

The owner of the phone pulled it out, looked at the number, and answered. She then left the group to talk on her phone. When she returned she reported that it was a neighbor’s daughter who needed a baby sitter. The initial ringing had been slightly intrusive, but the woman’s departure was a major statement. It said the phone call had higher priority than her friend’s distressing family plight. As it turned out the need for a baby-sitter stole the woman away from listening to a friend's heart-wrenching personal concern.

I have had many conversations interrupted by a buzzing cell-phone. Rarely does it bother me. But the “baby-sitter” call reminded me there is a time to ignore a ringing phone.

A Life-Changing Compliment

This Really Happened!!

Two years ago, in 2006, I attended my college class reunion. I enjoyed meeting a couple of dozen of my old classmates, some of whom I had not seen in fifty years. As we were breaking up and heading for home I happened to come up along side Marilyn. We greeted each other, chatted a little, and then began to head off in different directions for our cars. As we began to part I said to her "you know you are as beautiful as you ever were." She glowed, thanked me, and we said "goodbye".

Two years later: October 2008, I was speaking on Care and Kindness at Christ Memorial Church In Holland Michigan. During a recess a woman came up and identified herself as Shirley. She said she was Marilyn's sister, and reminded me we had chatted at that reunion. She then went on to tell me that the compliment I had paid to Marilyn in the college parking lot, over two years earlier, had "changed Marilyn's life."

That sentence literally stopped me. "What do you mean?" I asked stunned with interest. Shirley went on to say, that what I had said to Marilyn had charged her up, strengthened her confidence, and caused her to come alive in a whole new way.

Nothing has happened in the last dozen years, as powerful as that report, to assure me and motivate me, to go on speaking and teaching encouragement, appreciation, and loving-kindness everywhere I go. It can be life-changing.

Twelve “Secret” Behaviors: They Will Brighten Lives—including yours, the giver.

Prelude: Five (or Six) Key Essentials before incorporating the “12 Secrets”-These are vital for everypone to believe.

1. You have the capacities, qualities, and abilities that can brighten another person’s life, help them gain confidence and feel hopeful, about life.

2. Everyone can be helped by your encouragement, kindness, interest and friendliness. No one is exempt.

3. Your warmth, friendliness, and kindness, when another feels it and sees it, makes them feel there is goodness and care in this world. That is hopefulness.

4. When you show any form of loving-kindness toward anybody you it is like showing it to Jesus, himself.

5. The care and kindness you give to others is infectious. They will catch it and pass it on, to help keep the ripples flowing, making this a happier world.

Plus: The benefits others gain from your care and kindness are matched by the positive feelings you will experience, in and from the process of offering such love.

Next I will list the first six of the Twelve Secrets.

Care and Kindness’ March Line-Up

Our church has been commended repeatedly for being “the friendliest church we’ve ever been to”. We are working very hard to keep it that way, and to help other churches become outstanding in showing hospitality, friendliness, appreciation and encouragement.

Our annual Care and Kindness conference is designed to help us all be “the light of the world” as Jesus called us.

New Speakers:

(1.) Dr. Robert Emmons—author of Thanks. He is the leading researcher on the benefits and skills of being actively grateful every day of the week. He is from The University of California-Davis.

(2.) Dr. William La Fleur from The University of Pennsylvania. He teaches Comparative Religions. We live in the neighborhood of the largest Vietnamese population outside of Saigon, most of whom are Buddhists. Dr. La Fleur will enlighten us on how to show loving kindness to this wonderful group of people.

(3.) David Kinnaman---He has unsettling evidence that Christians are not held in esteem by those outside the church. His book UnChristian shows his research. Kinnaman will also talk about how to fix this.


PLUS: Robby V. Schuller, Rebecca Caldwell, Vicki Orr, Annette Craig, Jan Pfeffer, Dick Innes, all with dynamic, helpful, topics for keeping our lights shining brightly.

March 12, 13, 14---in The Arboretum of The Crystal Cathedral

For more information about our Care and Kindness Conference Click Here