Today @ The Gathering we continued our series, “12 Steps Up: How Messy People Mature.” We talked about the importance of relationships. You were made and created for relationships. And yet our own woundedness has a way of getting in the way of bringing people in really close.
Today we talked about the fact that people who make life meaningful are also often the kind of people that make it messy. So how do you find a better class of friend; someone who will come close and stay on the journey with you to not just healing, but figuring out just how good life can be?
We talked about what happens when a person does life alone. They wind up as a victim: complaining, skape-goating, side-stepping, and asking other people to pity them. And that’s not who you are. God created you a winner, not a victim. Winners are people who accept the responsibility for their own lives and behaviors and ask for accountability of other good people to live the life of their dreams.
Today we talked about those characteristics of the people you need to look for: the people who can shut up after you’ve told them a secret, the people who can stand up and show up; the people who can speak up and say “no” to you, the people who help lift you and spur you on to greatness, the people who can challenge you to do more than you think you can do.
Right now, stop, and list the five people in your inner circle who meet the qualities that I talked about today. If you don’t have them, get on the search today. And if you can’t find them after you’ve searched for them, here’s the secret: be these things to someone else and you’ll attract the right kind of person.