INFLUENCE

Today I attended the First Lady's Prayer brunch of Tampa. The main speaker, Pam Tebow, spoke on influence. I have been thinking a lot about influence lately and what she shared greatly challenged me. She said "If your life connects with anyone else's life you have influence. If you influence anyone, you influence everyone in their life." This made me stop and think; how do I want others to be influenced by my life? Am I living in such a way that my influence will be good?

She then shared six points that are important to influence.

1. Master- Choose this day whom you will serve. Who I follow effects what type of influence I have. A relationship with Christ is the corner stone of influence.

2. Manuel- What directions am I following? Do I read the greatest manual of all, the bible or do I rely on myself or others for answers to life's questions?

3. Prayer- Prayer is not so much a channel through which I influence God. It is the channel through which God influences me.

4. Mindset- What I think about is what I become, so I should guard my thoughts.

5. Mission- Influence others on purpose! John 15:5 Abide in Christ, without Him I can do nothing, including influencing others.

6. Passions- I must be passionate about what I believe. People are drawn to passion so I need to learn to share mine with others.

I desire to be a woman of strong influence and I want that influence to draw others to God. I want to be passionate for Him and to pass that passion on to others. Mrs Tebow's talk reminded me I am influencing others now and if I want that influence to be good I must abide in God and allow Him to do the influencing through me. To illustrate what she meant she shared the following poem:

Little eyes are watching you

There are little eyes upon you

and they're watching night and day.

There are little ears that quickly

take in every word you say.

There are little hands all eager to do

anything you do;

And a little boy who's dreaming

of the day he'll be like you.

You're the little fellow's idol,

you're the wisest of the wise.

In his little mind about you

no suspicions ever rise.

He believes in you devoutly,

holds all you say and do;

He will say and do, in your way

when he's grown up just like you.

There's a wide eyed little fellow

who believes you're always right;

and his eyes are always opened,

and he watches day and night.

You are setting an example

every day in all you do;

For the little boy who's waiting

to grow up to be like you.

-anonymous

I desire each day to reach for God's absolute best in my life so my influence will be His influence. So the little eyes that are watching me will have a good example to follow.