Keys to Generational Thinking

Greetings;

Last week I wrote in regard to being a generationally minded people. Today I want to expound on eight things that I concluded with last week.

The first is that we must: 1) Be Life, Thus Live Life in a Contagious Way –

We cannot be life to others if we only live life to satisfy ourselves. We should be happy in what we are doing in life, but we should not do what we do in order to be happy. Happiness is a choice that we make in our hearts. It is a decision we make in whatever place we find ourselves. We must choose to be happy in the world we live in. This includes our circumstances, even if we are presently in circumstances that are less than what we really desire. In whatever place we find ourselves in life, we are there for the sake of others in our world. We are there to bring life to our environment and to others within our sphere of influence. The true testimony of being life for others cannot have within it a taking attitude or a self-gratifying agenda. Being life is all about being life to others around us. To do this we must be full of the life that can only come by the life-giving Holy Spirit of God within us. We must realize that we were born for the world. More specifically, we were born for our world. We are light in our world and salt in our world for the sake of our world. The life that we live should inspire others to live life to the fullest. We must choose to be happy for the sake of those around us. When we do this we will find that happiness as a great blessing to ourselves as well.

A second thing that we must do to be a generationally minded person is:

2) Take Responsibility for Life –

To take responsibility for life we must accept our world as our world. We cannot make excuses for our shortcomings. Our world is our world and we cannot point the finger at others in a way that claims our challenges are the fault of others. Life isn’t fair – it is simply life. Our life is our life! Each of us is given a cup to drink and we must each drink the cup that is given to us. We cannot just take responsibility for our own world, we must take responsibility in a way that recognizes what we do will affect others. We must exercise our thoughts, plans, strategies, and imaginations in order to create a better world for others in our sphere of influence.

We must also realize that our world is not ours alone.  Each of us is in our world with others. In order to be generationally minds we must: 3) Join With Others –

Joining with others means that we recognize that relationship is more important than accomplishments. Friendship with others should be a priority in our lives. Covenant connections must be desired and sought. Who has God joined us to in life? We were not born to be alone. We were born to be a part of God’s family. God is the one who directs relationships and it is through relationship that all life sustains the authority of life.

To be generationally minded we must also: 4) Work With Others –

Working with others means accepting the strengths of others as contributions to our weaknesses. We must seek to give our own strengths to others as a contribution to their weaknesses. We must recognize that our world is made of other members in addition to ourselves and we must seek to work with them in a multi-generational way. Our world is a world made of the dream and vision of God revealed through the individual dreams and visions of others. We are called to fulfill the will of the Father in this world, not merely some personal agenda for success. In order to fulfill our complete significance we must make it our aim in life to work with others.

To be generationally minded we must live to: 5) Influence Others –

We don’t influence others to get anything from them. We give all that we are for the sake of others and this is the purpose of our influence. It is a matter of discovering our authority in life. All life comes from authority. Authority is the measure of life we have been given for the sake of others. When we have authority we have too much of something and we are mandated to seek out others who will receive what we have to give. We don’t give our authority to get our identity. We don’t give our authority to be valuable. We give our authority so that others can rise to the fullest destiny in their lives.

To be generationally minded we must: 6) Identify With Others –

We must recognize that we are part of something great. Like members of a body, our focus is to be a body. Our focus is not upon our membership, but upon the health of the body. We do our part so that no one is hindered in his or her part. We do our share so that the full purpose of life is accomplished by the whole. Our destiny in life is not an individual task. It involves being part of a corporate expression of the body of Christ.

To be generationally minded we must: 7) Serve Others –

Serving others can only truly be done when we see ourselves as expressions of our heavenly Father. God gives life, breath, and all things to all men. We must serve the next generation with life, breath, and all that we can bring in order to set a ceiling that can be the floor of an advancing destiny.

In doing these things we will:

8) Live For Others – Even For the Generations Beyond Our Day –

This has to be the focus of our lives. We must live with an eternal view, not just in heaven but also even upon the earth. We have our time, but our time is simply another piece in the fullness of eternity. What will we bring

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

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