Be interested in others

I just finished a great semester of teaching a fun class of all girls.  When we started out, I told them our motto was going to be "Spend less time trying to be interesting and more time being interested".
WOW you would think that would be easy.

 The more and more I look around and seek to truly be interested in others the more I realize how valuable this is.  In the book of Matthew, chapter 22 Jesus tells us of the greatest commandment, which is to love the Lord you God will all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  The he goes on to tell us the second greatest commandment. "Love your neighbor as your self,"

Jesus is saying to us the two greatest things you can do is love the Lord with all you have and love others as you love yourself.  I think about us, and our culture and how seldom do I see not just people but Christians, or Christ followers do either of these very well.  We love a lot of things, we love our phones, our houses, our stuff, our interests but how well do we really love others.

My son is in Europe right now and we talked to him about how things are over there.  I treasured his answer,  he said "simple."  Now keep in mind his internet is not great and he has lost all use of his phone and he is in a place where he had to start all over meeting people.  But still he realizes the gift of simplicity.
What if we could simplify our lives and treasure others and love God.  Actually make it part of our goal to love others. Would it make a difference to anyone? 

 I think we  all want others to be interested in us.  We are created for Love.  When we don't get love or acceptance from others it hurts us.  I know a lot of people who would argue with this statement.  Many of us don't want to admit we need others.  We think we need to be strong.  Usually this is a defense mechanism we use because we have been ignore or rejected so many times already.

What I ask is what if you and I would spend more time being interested in others and less time worrying about who is not interested in us?  For example, what if we used facebook as a tool to send encouraging messages to friends?  We could get on facebook to send encouragement and be interested in others?  I know call me crazy but  try not getting on to see who is interested in us?  Who has wrote on our wall?  Who has commented on our pictures? Quit writing about us in our status and write about things of interest.  Something simple i know but would it make any difference to anyone else?

What if we actually tried to live our lives Loving the Lord with all of our hearts and quit loving self the most.  We thought about the needs of others and reaching out to others to make them realize they are special?

I have learned a valuable lesson this year at my favorite McDonalds.  I know that might seem weird but hear me out.  I have never had a favorite McDonalds until I meet Richard.  Richard was the manager at McDonalds near my home.  I had visited this place often but much more frequently when my mom started working at a bread place near by.  I am a diet coke drinker, my moms place did not have diet coke so i would walk across to McDonalds each morning that i visited my mom.  Sometimes I would buy breakfast sometimes not. The first time I meet richard I thought what a nice guy.
The second time i remember meeting Richard he acted like we were old friends and remembered that I like styrofoam cups and got me one before I could even ask.  Within a week he knew my name and we were friends.  Richard was this way with every customer that came into his restaurant.  I started watching how he would shake hands with new people and ask there names and he would remember what the regulars would order.  He would walk around and greet people.  He was nice to his employees, he was nice to me, he was a really nice guy.
Then the bad news came, brace yourself, they were moving Richard to another location to manage another store.  I was really sad about this when he told me.  I think he was really sad.  I put it in the back of my mind cause that just was soooo sad.  As the last week winded down I could tell customers were sad, employes were sad.  Then they actually took him a day before he was supposed to go and that was too much! I felt a loss.  Crazy i know!  How could a manager at McDonalds effect so many people.  They were bringing in presents and hugging him his last day.  I took him a present and sadly hugged him his last day also.  It was weird to feel that connected to him.  But the thing was, Richard was interested in others.  Always looking to their needs.  He learned there names and what they liked and made it a point to greet them.  He made you feel special.

I want to be like that.  I want others to walk away feeling loved and special and that I was interested in them because I really was interested.  Love others as yourself.  I want to do that in this culture that is all about self.  Lets be the difference!!  In the love and truth of Jesus and His great big love.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.
You are loved
Tally