Let's Get Practical: Putting Your Godly Influence to Work

Hello Friends and welcome to the final week of #31days2021 writing challenge. And this week we are going to get PRACTICAL! We have learned what godly (good) influence looks like and we have learned what negative influence looks like. But it doesn’t matter what we know unless we put it into practice!

Influencers

When I hear the word influencer, the very first thing that comes to mind is what we today call a “social media influencer.” Being a blogger I have to spend some time on social media. Of course like all people who use multiple platforms we have our favorites. But there are people on social media who have thousands of followers (or millions) and they reach A LOT of people with their content.

I’m just teeny blog…I don’t have thousands of followers…I don’t even really know if I have 20. What I do know is that I have a few readers that through my journey over the last few months who have told me that my writing has helped them and their families. AND THAT MAKES ME AN INFLUENCER. But long before there was ever a blog…there was a husband, and a church, and a couple of teeny tiny kiddos and ya know what…..I WAS STILL AN INFLUENCER. We are all influencers because we all HAVE people on a daily basis that we influence.

Why I write

I don’t write to influence millions. I write to help that one person that might be struggling. I know I know I hear all the visionaries in the background shouting at me….dream bigger. I have big dreams. My accountability team knows that. BUT my purpose comes first. I am going to work with what I’ve Got to bring glory to God in all that I say and do and to help people grow in their walk with God!

Where you are at with what you have got

Once upon a time (pre-pandemic) I worked with a crisis pregnancy center. I loved it and the women I worked with. And on a few occasions I had the opportunity to share with people about the center. And it always amazed me how women would come up to me afterwards and tell me how great it was that I could do such a thing. It was the idea that “as a pastor’s wife you get that privilege and that I couldn’t ever do such a thing,.”

I’m here to tell you to stop doing that. As a pastor’s wife I don’t have some special gifting to do certain things. Yes I have gifts and abilities but I had them along before I was a pastor’s wife and even if I am never a pastor’s wife again I could still do what I have been gifted in.

It’s all about being willing

You just have to be willing to use what you already have. Often times these women who would act this way have powerful backgrounds , ones that are full of redemption grace and mercy. Many times it takes someone with a similar history who can relate to someone who is currently living a similar story. Someone who can say “Hey I have been there and this is what Jesus did for me!”

Things get in our way

Somewhere along the line we have fallen for the lie that only speakers, bloggers, missionaries or pastors families are equipped to do the “hard stuff”. (That’s what I have been told by people). God equips those he calls, So many people are called but they refuse to be equipped. Because they either think they don’t need to be equipped (arrogance)), they buy into a lie that they can’t be equipped, or they just don’t want to be equipped.

God wants to use your story- you are the only person who can share it the way he wants you to. He has given you a story, gifts, abilities and passion. You have to be willing to use it for his glory or it goes to waste. He wants to take those hard things in your life and turn them into something beautiful. And trust me there is nothing more beautiful than when he takes your broken places and uses them to radically transform someone else life!

The ONLY thing standing in your way of doing that is a willingness to let God use this broken places AND a willingness to learn from other people!