HE TALKS ME UP!
One of the sections in the John Maxwell book I read recently made reference to a particular activity his dad embarked upon when he was young. He mentioned that his dad always speaks so highly of both himself and his siblings whenever he was having a conversation with anyone and they were within earshot. He went ahead to describe how that made them want to behave to the standard of what their dad believes and says about them. As I read this section, I remembered certain things that happened in my younger years and thought to share with you.
As a second child of six, in a home with so many girls (we are five girls and one boy), one of the things I observed about my dad was his keen interest in ensuring we his children never had any reason to feel inferior to others. We were your average middle class family, but I grew up seeing my dad making all necessities available to us. The provisions my dad made was beyond financials, he was that dad that kept talking his children up so much so that it would be injustice to misbehave. I for one never wanted to disappoint him, so I always endeavoured to behave well.
My dad’s effort and words made such a huge impact in my life that I can look back now knowing fully well that it was part of what shaped me into who I am today. Thinking of John Maxwell’s dad and my father reminded me of the ultimate dad of dads – our Heavenly Father.
He is the best of them all; sees you and I as He desires us to be, not as we are in our failures and faults. He calls us by what He has placed in us and keeps working on us till we become what He made us to be. God displayed this as He called Gideon by what He designed him to be :-
“When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, o mighty man of valour” Judges 6:12
Gideon surely didn’t feel nor act like a mighty man, but the angel of the Lord called him as God sees him. And it was a matter of time, Gideon rose to become who God called and ordained him to be.
God is on your side!
PB