Good Motivation

I would like to think that the call to Christian living is powerful enough, by itself, to call us to faithful, kind, caring living. However, simply asking people to behave in a certain way rarely produces the hoped for results. Most people must find a reason of their own to act in a certain way. Just the preacher or Momma or even God asking us to be nice is often not enough.

One way that people get motivated to change their behavior is when they get a picture of how bad behavior affects others. It is hard to see when you just look at others, but when bad behavior happens to you, you start to feel the pain of bad behavior. For example, maybe you have fallen into the habit of judging others and it doesn't occur to you how much it may hurt them until one day, someone says something judgemental about you. Wow! that hurts. In feeling the results personally of our bad behavior, we are often motivated to be nicer to others.

Another way to find motivation for Christian living is to see the results of good behavior. When we act in love and reach out in God's grace, people are touched. We are kind to a child. We are loving to our spouse. We are thankful for a friend. We forgive. We communicate. We understand. We dispense grace. Anytime we do any of these things, we are living the Christian life. You can see the happiness that others receive, and you are filled with it as well. Even as I write this, I have a smile on my face just thinking of how people can be touched by acts of kindness.

So, if you are looking for motivation to live the Christian life, if the pain of other's bad behavior does not motivate you to make different choices, then look to see the good that grows in the hearts of those who receive kindness and grace from you. We are His vessels, the carriers of his spirit, his joy, his love. When we let Him pour his love out through us, it is good. Good for the giver and good for the receiver.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.