Everything around us has some type of influence over us. Good or bad it has an affect on us. It could be a thing, an idea or theory, school of thought or training, a person, or the Lord. But whatever it may be, we only lie to ourselves if we say that we are immune to influence and we are strong enough to influence everything and be affected by nothing. Wrong again. I think the more important question to ask is what have we ALLOWED to seep deep enough to influence our drive, our thoughts, our work, our minds, our beliefs, and our families. The last time I wrote, I referred to tolerance and this ties back to that. If we continue to allow everything around us to influence us, then eventually we build a tolerance to it, but heaven forbid that we lose our beliefs over it. In the first weeks of the Daniel study by Beth Moore she says the if we are not deliberate in our training of godliness that we will easily fall to the Babylon around us. Ouch. But so true.
Influence is a powerful thing, not to be handled or taken lightly. We all are influential in a sense to a child, friend, co-worker, family member, or a bystander. For those we are close to, our influence often is much deep than we would believe. We don't stop long enough to reflect how much what we say, how we act, or how we carry ourselves can influence someone else. Whether gloomy, happy, spunky, realistic, angry, bitter, or encouraging, some type of attitude is communicated in our very being that has the power to affect someone else. We have all been around someone who is angry or bitter or unforgiving and know how forlorn and drained that can make us feel; equally so, we know people who brighten a room, are always optimistic, a ray of sunshine, and turn lemons into lemonade. So what kind of influence are you? Better yet, what kind of influence do you want to be and what are some step or goals that would help you/I get there? We must be willing to sift ourselves, filter out what really serves no purpose but a selfish one.
Hard-water staining is one of the most annoying things I have dealt with since living in a hard water district. It is ugly and white and impossible to scrub off without some assistance. By a little vinegar. By nature, vinegar is an acid and a helpful one when you deal with this sort of problem. All of us are stained without Christ. After salvation, we are still human and sometimes hold onto things that are a terrible influence like a bad drip. After a while, the surface starts to show what a slow steady drip can do. It leaves a stain like hard water that is impossible to scrub without a acid to help.
My prayer is that my influence and your influence never looks ugly like a nasty hard water stain for all to see and know that we did not do the daily work on ourselves to invest in a God who loves us and longs to spend time with us. Longs to teach us. The beauty of knowing Christ is going to the only source that can remove and wipe away years and give us a new outlook. Every day. It is easy to let the troubles of this life weigh us down and wear on us like hard water. We have to learn to shut off the bad attitudes and influences and stop being so affected by them. Praise the Lord that He gives us our footing, our influence so that we can hopefully make an impact for Him. Because anything else is probably rooted in something Babylonian: selfish, greedy, ego, pride, and material. We must be deliberate about our relationship with God to continue to be the type of influence He intended for us to be.
