Pastor’s Corner July 21st, 2022

“When I graduated from college my father said that if I would do three things every day intentionally I would be very successful. He said ““John, believe in people, value people and unconditionally love them.””                John C. Maxwell, Minute with Maxwell

In his Minute with Maxwell on the 14th of July John Maxwell spoke of the importance of believing in people. He said, this is critical because many people do not believe in themselves. For John Believing in others begins with believing in ourselves, then we become able to believe in others. To be successful we do not necessarily need others to believe in us, but we will never be successful if we do not believe in ourselves. Once we become able to believe in ourselves we become able to believe in others. We cannot give something we do not have. The place to begin, according to John, is to say something good about ourselves each and every day. He urges us to fill our hearts and minds with words of positivity. Jesus shared a similar sentiment when he responded to the question posed by the Pharisees:

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ He said to him, ‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’ (Mt. 22:34-40)

I was really struck by the sentiments shared by John Maxwell and Jesus. So often our harshest critic is ourselves. No wonder it is often so difficult to believe in and love others when we struggle to do o for ourselves. I believe this is true for ourselves as individuals and as a congregation. It is easy to see the things that seems problematic about ourselves and our church. I want to invite us all to accept John’s challenge and say something positive about ourselves every day. I suspect each of us has heard about or keeps a gratitude journal, let’s show some gratitude towards ourselves. Let’s fill our hearts and minds with words of positivity each day. As we do this for ourselves I want to invite us to do the same about our congregation. What can we say that is good about our congregation? I want to start by setting aside a little space in the Messenger to share one positive thing about FCC. I invite you to send in your thoughts to me directly or to the church office and we’ll share it in the Messengers. It can be something short and sweet. If you do not mind we will include your name or you can remain anonymous if you prefer. If I do not get any volunteers I will start looking for them and I may ask you! So, I’ll begin.

I love the loving and caring people here at FCC.

See, that wasn’t so hard, was it? Let’s fill our hearts and minds with words of positivity each day. As we do so we will become able to see the positive in ourselves, in our congregation and ultimately in the world around us.

With joy and love, Pastor Karen