Isn’t it amazing when you start to realize how significant your place is and how much of an impact you can make with it. Its wonderful! Keep remembering that and keep doing it!!
The other day I read the story of Lazarus and how Jesus mourned when he found out his friend died. It moved his heart because he really cared about his friend. Even he knew he would come back to life it still hit him. It was because he had a true love for him. He wasn’t just an acquaintance or someone he saw from time to time, no it was someone He truly cared about.
Recently our neighbors of 4 years moved back to Greece. When we came closer to their moving day it really hit us. We genuinely became sad because Jen and I both truly loved them and they became family to us. It was not just the feeling of someone moving that you barely knew and you would say goodbye to, no it was a goodbye that you would say when your brother or sister moves far away. We celebrated Easters and Christmases together and many other holidays, had dinners together and went on double dates. All those things brought us so close. So when they left it left a gap in our life.
A true genuine friendship with your neighbors feels like something. It moves your heart when they struggle or makes your heart happy when they are in a great season. We want to challenge you this week to have genuine relationships with your neighbors. Think about how it would make you feel if they would be gone and by that reaction you can tell a bit more where your relationship is at with them.
Hey our friend
We hope you had a fantastic week. We celebrated Labor Day with a big barbecue here. It was fun like always! And it is so simple with everyone bringing something with them. It also builds just wonderful community. Jen and I also both were able to use some of our gifting’s to help people. I started to help people by teaching them budgeting and also get out of debt and Jen uses her hair dressing gifting to help people get rid of access hair. Think this week about how you can be a blessing to your neighbors through the gifting’s you have. It helps to deepen relationship.
So take another step this week towards your neighbors and towards a deeper friendship!
Have a blessed week
Markus and Jen
How did it start to change you when you started to commit to things? I know it has only been 1 week, but you will see the impact it will leave!!
How was your week? Ours was really wonderful. One of my best friends got married this weekend and I had the honor to stand in the wedding. It was wonderful. So outside of the wedding the week was also great for me and Jen since we had some really good writing time on the book. Its moving forward!! Thank you for praying for us!! Also pray with us in this coming season for more people to be inspired to start loving their neighbors and build community through it!!
I lived in San Francisco for about 13 years now and Jen 7 which is a long time. One of the things I can say about this place is that you have always something going on. If it is a concert, sports, meetups, dinners etc., you name it and it is probably there. Doesn’t it sound awesome that you have so many choices? Yes in some ways it is, but in others it actually isn’t. Let me explain: Many people stand in front of so many choices and don’t know what to accept and what not. With that it creates often the answer maybe. So if something better comes up you can still skip out on the other thing. But the problem with that is, you will never be able to build deeper relationships if you always hope for something better. To build good friendships with people around you, you have to commit. You have to say yes and whatever comes along doesn’t matter, because you are important to me. So the problem with no strong friendships is actually often created by our lack of commitment or of the other person. Because if you don’t commit, that person has a hard time to commit, because everything depends on you and if you say last minute yes or no. So to be able to be committed we have to learn to say no. Yes there are always great opportunities out there, but it doesn’t mean we have to take all of them. Choose one and stick with it! When Jesus choose his disciples he was committed to them and stood with them till the end. He didn’t choose all people he could have had relationship with, he just choose 12!
Wir glauben das du bereits einen großen Unterschied in dieser Welt machst und hoffen das dich der letzte Blog noch mehr inspiriert hat ein Teil von Gottes Antwort für Menschen zu sein die Hilfe brauchen und sie seine Liebe spüren zu lassen! Du machst einen Unterschied in dieser Welt!!
We pray God encouraged you and gave you an even greater grace for you and other people around you through the message of last weeks blog! We need to stay consistent even if we see backward steps! God wants to keep moving in our and the lives of our neighbors and he will not give up! So let us never give up either!!
This week’s blog is about a dream I had the other day and how God wants to encourage all of us through it!! And this is a picture of me and the neighbor dog I talk about in the video!