Having a Positive Effect ...

When I wake up in the morning I am not the person you want to be around. I'm a grumpy, ill-social, lump of a human being that doesn't function correctly until about 30 minutes have passed. My family can attest to that. You know it's bad when my wife says to my kids, "Now let's leave daddy alone until he wakes up." It's nothing personal, I just hate everyone equally for the first 30 minutes of my day. 

That's an exaggeration of course, but it's not too far from the truth given my track record. My attitude in the morning very rarely lasts longer than the before mentioned 30 minutes, but it has happened before. My attitude sometimes rubs off on my kids which makes for a difficult day. I've since learned not to be so harsh because it just benefits everyone. The point I'm getting at is that my attitude can directly effect someone else and that's not what I want to happen.

As I grew up I was easily influenced by others. Most would say I was insecure or just unsure of who I wanted to be, but the truth was that I just wanted to be accepted by someone, anyone that would take me in. I spent many years as a pre-teen trying to fit in to clicks that I had no business trying to get in to. I would try way too hard doing things that I shouldn't have to just be liked by people that I really didn't care about. There were a lot of "wasted years" trying to be liked. 

This went on all the way to my sophomore year in high school when I finally just decided to not care what others thought, but to just be myself and those who wanted to like me would and those chose not to could "kiss it." I found that as I quit caring my friends doubled and tripled because I was actually not the norm, but something different. I wasn't the cookie-cutter person that the world tried so hard to make us in to.

I believe whole heartily that one person can make a difference. It may not be a world-wide change, but I believe positivity is an infectious thing. It starts from within by loving yourself. Jesus tells us in His word in Matthew Chapter 10 verse 30 "that even the hairs on our head our numbered" which tells me that God knows every detail about us and that no two are alike. We've been hand-crafted by the very Maker of the world thus making us an individual. There is no need to conform to a standard, but to be who we are, accepting ourselves and not changing for anyone. From there we can move forward to changing the world one person at a time thus causing a domino effect.

The one thing this world needs is some positivity. We hear of horrible tragedies happening across the globe almost on a daily basis and the majority of those tragedies come at the hand of some lost soul thinking that they're doing the right thing to vocalize an issue or belief that they stand for. An old saying that I used to hear all the time was "If you don't stand for something you fall for anything."  There is so much truth to this which is why we need people to stand for the right things and again it starts within and with leadership.

If we can be a positive people who's not afraid to our joy to the world then maybe, just maybe we can make a difference. Being an positive influence may not change the world as a whole, but it can change the world of one person and thus Having a Positive Effect...