A Wise Friend's Unconscious Influence

Well, it all started with these images. In both pictures, the left side is me two years ago and the right side is me now. I was proud of myself for losing weight and changing my look. I was having a conversation with a friend, Chrissy Risher, and she was talking about how she is making an effort to change her lifestyle not necessarily to lose weight but to feel better about her self and gain confidence. Then I realized that I was proud of myself for the wrong reasons. I was glad I lost weight and got back to my "normal" size after gaining weight from a bad semester in college because I was getting more attention. More guys started noticing me and I loved it. I wasn't proud of myself for having a healthier lifestyle that made me confident about who I am. Our lifestyle talk eventually turned from eating clean and working out to our spiritual lives. At that time I confessed to Chrissy that I felt like I have recently drifted away from God, and that I am shamefully aware of that fact and unwilling to do anything about it. She then began telling me about a few things going on in her life (read her blog! Chrissy Risher on Wordpress). Little did she know, the impact her words made on me. She thought she was simply telling me a story, but her character in the story is so Godly, womanly and strong, the influence of her story has already changed my mindset. She said, "I prayed for God to break me." I am thinking to myself, why in the world would anyone ever ask to be broken, that doesn't make any sense. Then she continued on to say that if being broken is the only thing that will bring her close to God, then that is what she wants. "I want to crave the Lord," she said. At this point I have already been incredibly moved by the thought of being willing to be broken in order to satisfy the Lord. What a faithful person it takes to pray to be broken. I was further encouraged by her as the conversation went on. I have adjusted my new year's resolutions to be things that uplift myself, others and the Lord; instead of things that seemingly increase my appearance in the eye's of others.

All this to say, you never know how your words are going to affect someone else so choose them wisely and you might just have a huge positive influence on someone else.

Thank you to Chrissy Risher for your friendship and encouragement. I pray that God will continue to open doors for you and keep allowing you to be a light for others as you were to me!