Helping others change

Hi there everyone, its your old friend Adrienne again.

This week I wanted to talk about something that is a little different.

Probably one of the most common things people struggle with and often feel like a failure in, is attempting change.

Because of our conversations, we can add difficulty to the journey of the person trying to change.  We use words describing that person like, “they do this or they don’t do that, they arrive late all the time, or maybe they angry or impatient.  “Whatever it is, these words are like labels that glue the person to the habit”.
“These labels then become our expectation of this person”.

When someone is desperately trying to break negative habits, they need affirming words that become labels glueing them to positive change.

I am reminded of an example of a person who has always been late. One day they decide, I am going to break this habit.  After arriving early at a weekly event for 2 weeks in a row, on the third they get a flat tyre and they are late.  Feeling frustrated and defeated, they are then met by people whose expectation was still on their past and spoke words like, “I knew it wouldn’t last”.

I think often about a writing in the New Testament when the writer speaks about a lady called Rahab.  He calls her name, “Rahab the harlot”.  The word harlot brands her, labels her with this lifestyle.  This woman though was the center piece of breakthrough for Gods’ children, she was a strong successful business woman working with fine linen, apart from being a harlot, which did not have the same connotations then as it does now. She saved her family, married one of the spies Joshua sent and became a person in the lineage of Jesus.  Without knowing who she is, we can read these words, apply this label and bring her past into present expectations.

“In creating positive change, we all need each other to speak words of affirmation that bring strength to our resolve”.

Well, I will see you again soon,
God Bless,
Adrienne

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