What if we were all just here for each other? What if we really, truly wanted the best for each other at all times and celebrated when one of our sisters had something good come her way?
I was having a conversation with a girlfriend the other day about broken cars or kids’ clothes or something mundane that turned into a talk about finances. Her husband is in ministry, mine is in sports. Unfortunately, in the messed up economics of this world, that means our bank accounts look pretty different.
I suddenly halted. I didn’t want a single thing to come out of my mouth that would make me sound superior or ungrateful or inconsiderate of her situation. I value her friendship too much to mess it up over money.
But just when I began to pull away, she gave me a priceless gift. She smiled and said, “I hope you know that you don’t ever have to feel weird about talking about money with me. I am so happy for you. I love to see my friends spoiled with great gifts from God.”
No judgement. No “Why does she get this and I only get that?” Just love.
I would have thought that experience had taught me a lesson, but I went into a TV studio for an interview yesterday and realized it’s a lot harder to see someone succeed than I had thought.
The woman doing the interview had been a TV anchor, but retired to have her babies (just like me). While the main anchor is off for maternity leave, this woman gets to fill in. So follow me on this… she was home taking care of her babies and now she gets to be on TV for a few months and then she gets to go home and take care of her babies again.
That’s like my ideal job!
I started thinking (God forgive me for this…), “How could she possibly be very good after being home with kids for the last five years?” ACK!!!! Where did that thought even come from??? I thought my heart was filled with kindness!!!
The fact is, that woman is really good at her job. I mean, really good. So I felt compelled to tell her. I still had a tiny pebble of jealousy sitting in my throat, but I refused to let that stop the words from coming. It was her second day on the job and I bet she appreciated the words of encouragement. I know I would have.
As I was walking out of the studio, she said, “Nicole, you’re a really good writer. I love your blog. I’m going to add it to my Favorites list.”
The pebble of jealousy was gone. We all have talents. We all get breaks. We all get good gifts from a great God, but sometimes we’re so busy looking at the gifts someone else is getting that we lose sight of our own.
Can you imagine what this world would look like if we were all here for each other? Here, not only to encourage the downtrodden, but also to celebrate when someone else is celebrating? I bet it would be Heaven.
