Monday Mantra – Be Different – Bless

Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. 1 Peter 3:9 ESV

How can I pray for you? The tech shifted back and forth a little uncomfortable with the request. He said, “yes, pray”. I asked, “Give me something specific?”. “Google reviews”, he responded. I understood.

My phone was dying slowly. It was becoming unpredictable and would turn off with 30 percent battery life.  It was tme to upgrade, but I was not ready to pay the money for a new phone.

A little backstory. Our backpack ministry is collecting donations in a “dying mall”. We continue to ask for donations inside the mall  to be a blessing by bringing in foot traffic. While inside the mall, I remembered Wireless world does phone repairs. I found the tech and asked if they replace Iphone batteries? He said, yes. – “How much?”- $69.- “Does that include the battery? – Yes.- “How long?” – 30 minutes. “Let’s do it!”

We checked the battery meter on my phone and it definitely indicated that my battery was indeed deficient. He completed the task in 30 minutes including cleaning my ports -charging and speaker.  

It was at this point that I asked to pray for him. I have since shared a positive review – something I almost never, ever do. And I have relayed the story to several people. WHY?

So many studies show that we share our negative experience way more than we share the good ones. Peter clearly states that children of God should be different. We speak differently about our experiences. We bless that we may inherit blessing.

You don’t have to make up something untrue to speak a blessing. Rather, found a way to ask God’s favor over the business, institution, or persons. If you had bad service at a restaurant, you could say, “Thank you God, for this business who employs people to help them with money for their families. Bless them to serve great food and may others have good experiences in this restaurant.” Wouldn’t you want someone to pray that for you, if it was your business?

Let’s be different and be blessers

• Have you spoken blessing over our government? Or are you repaying insult for insult? We talk about the devisive rhetoric. Let’s be different.
• Have you blessed struggling school systems? Don’t let your words of negativity be used by our enemy as an open door to continue to push down those kids in school. Bless the students with the ability to learn and have “aha” moments.  Bless the teachers to have breakthroughs. What would you want someone to pray for if your kids were attending those schools? I used “those” schools on purpose to reveal the stigma we carry. May God’s light reveal our hidden pride…be different.
• How do you bless and speak well of leadership, at your business, in your town, over police officers, or in your office? So much water cooler talk is negative – be different.
• Intentionally keep track of your words throughout your day taking notice of complaints and gratitude statements. Ask God to help you be more of a blesser. Be different.

I pushed my buggy full of school supplies…like hundreds of items to the font of the Walmart store to check out. A young clerk asked if I was ready to check out? I said yes. She replied, “Great, I love counting school supplies”. Another employee jumped in and said she would also help. They counted and scanned all of my supplies. What a most pleasant experience.  I told them thank you several times. What great attitudes from these two younger girls. Hope filled my heart.  It was easy to bless them and Walmart.

What if I had to do all of that by myself? I would still need to be different and bless them for having all of the supplies that I needed at that moment.

Peter said that inheriting blessings are connected to our blessing first. Let’s be different. May the words of our mouths be acceptable to God at all times. May we develop the skill of turning insults into blessings. May we walk in the humility necessary to return good for evil. May Jesus help us to turn offenses against us into prayers of blessings. The one who offended us needs us to “BE Different”.

Blessings Love y’all

*My picture today was a little Defferent” I guess AI was trying a “Dad joke”.