THE POWER OF INFLUENCE

I have recently been reading a book called "People Can't Drive You Crazy If You Don't Give Them The Keys".   There is a section where the author writes about the power of influence.

We all have relationships with people who we would like to see a change take place.  Many of us have heard the line, "You can't change the person but you can change yourself".   While it is true that the Holy Spirit is the one that has the power to change a person's life, we can be used by God to be an influencer.  What does influence mean?  The book has described influence in this way.  "Influence means living a healthy emotional life in close proximity to others.  It means that we intentionally put ourselves in  relationships where we can be life on life with them.  We don't have to have an agenda; we just have to care enough to connect."

Notice the key to being an influencer is developing our own healthy emotional life and secondly being in close proximity to others.  When we are emotionally healthy in the context of relationships our behavior is caught more than taught.  This means we don't have to have an agenda.  We just live our lives in close proximity and people will often adapt to our attitudes and behavior.

Just think how much we have changed in the context of marriage.  Over a period of years the influence of our mates have simply rubbed off on us.

So lets not get hung up on expecting the other person to change and fostering our agendas.  Let's just be emotionally healthy and not be afraid to connect.