Be a Builder

By Marjorie Foerster Eddington

What makes you feel good about yourself? What tears you down?

There’s a lot in our lives or the world that could cause us to complain.
There’s a lot that can cause us to stress, worry, and be riddled with anxiety.
There’s a lot in our day-to-day experiences that would try to tear us down, rip us apart, make us feel worthless.

But why go there when there’s so much good going on that we can appreciate? There are many ways we can feel peaceful, satisfied, joyous, and fulfilled.

But how?

• We open ourselves up and let the light of the Christ shine through us.
• We make the commitment to share and spread only good news, God’s news.
• We practice at every opportunity.

And there are plenty of opportunities to shine the light of Christ into the dark corners of people’s thoughts and lives, especially during the teen years. We may make mistakes, but we don’t have to beat up on ourselves when we mess up. Rather, we can just realize what happened and reset to do better next time.

Here are some action points:

• We can actually spend time talking with our family and friends about good things.
• We can celebrate the little achievements.
• We can be grateful for someone or something good that has happened.
• We can search for acts of kindness and send those along on snap-chat or post them on Facebook.
• We can text encouraging words to our friends who are struggling, rather than talking to others about how our friends are struggling.
• We can notice people who need help, and rather than ignore them, we can actually go up to them and say hi.
• We can look people in the eyes when we talk with them.
• We can build people up, tell them how great they are, thank them for being awesome.
• We can look up toward God, away from ourselves.
• We can see that there’s more to life than whatever events seem to be taking up our mental thought time.
• We can stop and breathe and appreciate the moment.
• We can make sure that every word out of our mouth is spoken with love, every word coming out of our fingertips is kind and thoughtful.
• We can pray rather than worry.
• We can trust in God rather than fear a future event/thing that is not necessarily going to happen.
• We can be a friend to those in need.
• We can be a friend to ourselves.

So let’s do it. Christmas is the perfect time to give these gifts: to appreciate and celebrate the good; to feel a sense of calm, settled peace so that we can establish a sense of peace wherever we go; and to build up ourselves and others so that we all feel valued. So let’s rejoice that we’re God’s children, made in God’s image and likeness (Gen 1:26). We have a Godly inheritance. Let’s spread the good news.