More Love, More Trust: Start with Appreciating People’s Being (2)

As continued from last issue, C-Mo shared how to build love and trust with others in the monthly prayer meeting on 4 June:

“Pastor and I do not care how the ministry is doing or how it is growing. We spend most of our time building people’s lives because we are to see the “being” and not “doing” of people. What is the being of a person? “Being” is who we are while our behavior is our “doing”. Our ministries and what we do are parts of our “doing”. I do not care much about people’s “doing”. God cares most about our “being”. If the being of this Tree of life is healthy, it will naturally bear good fruit. Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

A person’s being matters the most. However, traditionally people tend to care about others’ appearances, qualifications, competence and ability of making money. People praise us as well as compare us with others in these aspects. We are used to praising the “doing” of people. For example, a husband praises his wife for doing housework well; a wife praises her husband for making money. But we are not accustomed to praising others’ “being”.

How do we praise one’s being? For example: “I see the goodness inside you”, “I see that you are very gentle”… When the being of a person is appreciated, we will discover the angel inside him/her. It is very important to find the angels inside people. Likewise when Michelangelo saw the David “hidden” inside the marble, he was able to start sculpturing. We must appreciate the being of people in order to chisel out the angel inside. People need to be appreciated and encouraged. Cell leaders shall know how to appreciate cell members’ being so as to see the angels inside them.

Where do love and trust start? They start with people being appreciated, affirmed and the beauty of the angels inside them seen. Couples, parents and children may appreciate each other this way. The angel inside everyone needs to be seen. “• [2020.07.05]