February 26: LOVE DOESN'T HAVE A RETURN ON INVESTMENT.

Affirmation: Choose to be resilient. Move from competition to collaboration.

“Some of the main characteristics of a person who has resilience are awareness, self-control, problem-solving skills, and social support. Resilient people are aware of situations, their emotional reactions, and the behavior of those around them.” (-verywellmind.com)

Your resilience grows when you are Collaborating…especially when you are collaborating with God

 

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Ponder, Personalize and Practice: 

Throughout the day recite this verse that is full of promise. Begin to personalize the first phrase: “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God…” Jot down the thoughts and feelings that come to mind as you ponder and personalize this phrase.

Deuteronomy 7:9

 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. 

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Reading for Today

Walk in Grace. Live in Love. by Bob Goff

Feb. 26

LOVE DOESN'T HAVE A RETURN ON INVESTMENT.

Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same. 

LUKE 3:11 

 

I have some friends who are really successful in business. I hear them use this phrase "return on investment" when they talk about their work. It makes sense. What do you put in? What do you get back? Most people are hardwired to want to know their efforts will be effective. This is a business metric that can be used not only in the for-profit world but also in the not-for-profit world. If you donate money to a cause, you want to know how the money will be used and later whether it accomplished the goal. Simple enough. If you send your kids to school, you want to know how much they learned. That's fair. If we're going to spend our time, energy, and resources on something, we want to know it's worth it and that we made a good choice. While that's a good way to look at a lot of things in life, I'm starting to see how we have to ditch that model when it comes to love. 

Love was never meant to be transactional. It doesn't give to get. It doesn't cre­ate spreadsheets to analyze how well it's working. It doesn't track how much love you put in and measure it against how much love you got back. Yet sadly, that's what we often do. We don't want to admit it, but we're looking for the return on investment. We want to know if our expression of love "worked." Keeping track of your investment is a fine way to gauge progress in the business world, I suppose, but it's a lousy way to measure a relationship because it turns people into projects. 

The return on investment with love is love itself. We don't have to know how our love makes a difference for it to be a good idea. We can just give it away like we won the lottery. People aren't projects, and love doesn't need to keep track of the outcomes. Think of a friendship, a relationship, or a venture you're involved in right now where you've been keeping track of how much love you put in and how much you've received in response-and figure out what needs to change. 

 

What would you do differently today if you weren't concerned anymore about getting something in return?