When you see someone that has something you want or does something that you want to do, do you become envious or do you get inspired?
Growing up, I had friends that wore “cool” brand clothing . . . I would be envious and wish I could dress like them.
Growing up, I had friends that grew up in mansions . . . I would be envious and wish I could live in a mansion.
Growing up, I had friends that all had girlfriends . . . I would be envious and wish I had a girlfriend.
Growing up, I had friends that traveled all the time to really cool places . . . I would get envious and wish I had those opportunities.
When I first started in ministry, I saw people that had huge ministries . . . I would get envious and wish I was a part of something like that.
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Have you been there? All to often we allow envy to rob us of joy, life, and opportunity. We allow envy to convince ourselves that we’re “second class” and can never have any of the opportunities or stuff that others have.
However, as I have grown, I have learned to allow things that would normally cause me to become envious to inspire me.
When I see people who do things that I would love to do or that have things I would love to have, I get inspired! If they can do it, that means I can do it! If they can have it, that means I can have it!
I get inspired by everything! I’ve been inspired by people going to sporting events, having date nights, going places, putting their family first, and other little things that they post on Facebook or Twitter.
When I see someone post a picture of a cool experience they had, or post that they got to spend time with one of their heroes, or that they got to speak at a really cool event, or that their ministry is exploding, I now get fired up! It causes me to dream bigger for my life.
Often, I’ll talk to them about how they got the experience or how they became successful, and in most cases, they teach me things I can implement in my own life to become more successful.
Life gets exciting not only when you view everyone and everything around you as inspiration, but when you realize you can inspire others simply by living the life God called you to live, but that’s a post for another day.
Bottom Line: Everything and Everyone around you can either cause you to become envious or to become inspired. The choice is yours.
Do you tend to get envious or inspired by others who are doing what you’d like to be doing and have what you’d like to have?
Thoughts?
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