This past week I had the great privilege of flying to Chicago (fun picture to the right just for kicks!)
and being a part of a roundtable of excellent Church Communicators. The roundtable was filled with people of expertise and passion; people who have dreams and are going after them while fervently seeking God first and foremost.
We all had the pleasure of meeting with and learning from Richard Bailey, author of Coherence. He posed a great exercise the first night of asking us who are the 8-10 people who have most influenced who we are. The exercise was intended to hone our listening skills, hearing the verbiage people used about these relationships when they shared them. It was a great exercise and it got me thinking in another direction.
Who was in my “circle of influence”?
There are those that I am impacted with everyday (Mom, Dad, Grandma K…Love you!) – easy additions to my list. But, who’s in #5-10 slots?
What about you? Think deep. Who do you see in your everyday behavior and thought patterns? Who is on your list? Before you write them down, jot a list somewhere else and think about why you are adding them.
This is what I did. My list felt random.
The first person I babysat for. My first yoga instructor. My youth pastor growing up. My first boyfriend?
But why?
Since there was no clear connection, it took me a little while to figure out the one thing all of them had in common. Why did these people influence me so greatly?
They saw something in me greater than I had seen in myself.
Carrie saw that I could be an excellent care-taker. Nannette watched me with acceptance and compassion and saw me as someone who could beautifully practice yoga. My youth pastor showed that he greatly believed in me. My first boyfriend, that I was someone worth treasuring.
All of these individuals probably had no idea their affects on me and yet they continue to impact me all of these years later. They dreamed for me dreams that I could not formulate on my own.
I share this with you to say, I believe what we do is impacting the people around us more than we will ever realize.
You have the potential to dream dreams for people. Dreams bigger than they feel capable of. Dreams that will shape who they are.
So take a moment. What are your interactions saying to those around you about who they are and what they can become?
