Monday, January 23, 2012

Make a Difference Monday - Week Two

Last Monday marked a new beginning for me...a resolution, if you will. I resolve to Make a Difference. No longer will I use the familiar excuses of What can just one person do that matters...or I am too busy...or a million others that stand ready in my brain. 

Someday, when I am old (my kids think I'm already there), I want to look back and say that my life mattered...that I made a difference, even in some small way.

I have decided to journal my 'small ways' each week. And I hope you will join me, because...

YOU can make a difference, too.

***

I had planned to write about something totally different today, but instead I find myself drawn again to the thing that has consumed my thoughts this week. It happened on Wednesday. I got the email that changed the way I think about strangers. It has made a difference in my life.

And I hope it will make a difference in yours.

The email I received talked about the new book that River Jordan wrote called Praying for Strangers: An Adventure of the Human Spirit. In it, she describes how in 2009 she began a New Year's Resolution to pray for one stranger every day.

This may not seem like much...but it grew to something much bigger than one person. It has changed her life and the lives of many others.

And, this week it changed mine.


Here's the link to the e-mail: Praying for Strangers: The Resolution


Read the article. Then check out her website. Read the stories of the gazillions of people that have made River Jordan's resolution their own. 
It is a.maz.ing. (insert goosebumps here)


So, this week, I became one of them. I took on the resolution. I am praying for strangers.


And that is making a difference in my life.

The people around me are no longer strangers...they are potential prayer-recipients. God is opening my heart to care even more for those around me, to see their needs (rather than rush by them) and to *dare I say it* reach out and help.*gulp*

I'm excited about this borrowed resolution. And, I admit, a little scared.  But more excited than scared.

After all, I want to make a difference.