EDIFICATION

I want to be honest to say that although I have been a word and spelling buff, I didn’t know the meaning of this word till of late.  Edification means to build up or strengthen morally and spiritually.

I wish that there were more people who work toward and grow in their own morals and spiritually without the help of a sort of an intervention.  I know that there are a myriad of ways one can get Christian intervention after a life of being a heathen, but it seems more and more are depending on outside assistance to get them back.  In my own opinion, your changed life for the better endures and perpetuates stronger and longer if you’ve achieved it through your own merits and hard work rather than depending upon outside intervention.  A Godly intervention is a big part of that.  Just think about it.   When everyone else has shunned you, God is the only friend you have left.  He will never leave you, whether you want him to be there or not.  Too bad, Jack!  God will use the negative and the positive events in your life to reinforce you, have you ever thought about that? You will never know that God is all you need until God is all you got.  Yes, people will be there to lead you to God but once you've achieved it, then there should be only you and Him.

I am a big believer, once I was dialed into the grace and purpose of God, that the best gift or blessing you can give another is edification.  I don’t mean faking the happiness you feel about them.  I don’t mean encouragement enveloped in envy.  I mean straight out genuine happiness for them that God is moving in their lives like He is moving in yours.  It’s infectious.  God will always uplift you, and if you do the same for someone else, GENUINELY, you will be surprised how that person will not only see God in you, but all the others around you will see it too.  It all starts with a smile.

You may ask, how do I do this?  Through encouragement no matter how small they achieve, encourage.   I love it when the news put a feature of someone saving a little girl’s life who was about to be kidnapped, or a teenager who saved someone from drowning, that’s big news and encouraging others to do the same and the teenager to do it again.  But there is so much we can do to lift someone’s spirit when we smile.  I have a t-shirt that says, “Smile.  It confuses people.”  That’s because no one ever smiles at each other anymore.  When I’m driving down the road around my lake house, and a car is going the opposite direction, we wave at each other.  It’s a small town feel.  Even though you don’t know that person, we know that we don’t live too far from each other.  That’s a good feeling.  Here in the city, we get flipped the finger when our driving is not quite up to par.  I don’t know about you but when I get the finger, my day is shot.  When someone smiles at me, it makes my day!

Edification is getting a little deeper.  When I get comments on my blog, it makes my heart blush with happiness, so thank you for that from the bottom of my heart.  That is the push and tangible reinforcement I need to keep it going.  Haters can continue hating but my prayer is that one day they will see it as I see it, how God wants to be known and loved, because he wants to love you back so much, no matter how small.  Who am I? I’m an unknown girl from California among gazillions of other people sharing this world with you who God wants to make a difference even in just ONE person’s life.  So that’s what I do.

On that note… LOVE ONE ANOTHER… Till my next rant…