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February 20, 2008
In Pastor's Words
Be A Person Others Would Enjoy
Most people want friends and want to be liked. But what is necessary for us to make friends and to become people others would like being around? The Bible is not silent on this issue and gives this counsel: “A man that has friends must show himself friendly” (Prov. 18:24). Best sellers like Becoming a Better You stress principles for us to follow which would not only please God, but which would make us happier people and more desirable to be around. For decades, Dale Carnegie’s book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, has swept the world with practical advice for becoming successful in relationships. My one time employer, friend and mentor, Norman Vincent Peale, who served as senior pastor of the Marble Collegiate Church (the oldest continuous church in America dating back to about 1628) in New York City for sixty five years, once shared ten rules for becoming the kind of person whom others would enjoy being around. These rules have been a great help to me and I share them with you with the hope that they may serve to guide and inspire you to succeed in being a person others would admire, appreciate and enjoy knowing.
1. Learn to remember names.
2. Be a very comfortable person so there is no strain in being with you—be an old-shoe, old-hat kind of individual. Be homey.
3. Acquire the quality of relaxed, easy-goingness so that things don’t ruffle you.
4. Don’t be egotistical. Guard against giving the impression that you know it all. Be normal and naturally humble.
5. Cultivate the quality of being interesting so that people will want to be with you and get something of stimulating value from their association with you.
6. Study to get the “starchy” elements out of your personality.
7. Sincerely attempt to heal, on an honest Christian basis, every misunderstanding you have had and now have. Drain off your grievances.
8. Practice liking people.
9. Never miss an opportunity to say a word of congratulations upon anyone’s achievement, or express sympathy in sorrow or disappointment.
10. Get a deep spiritual experience (with Christ) so that you have something to give people that will help them to be stronger and meet life more effectively. Give strength to people and they will give affection to you.
In my estimation, the practice of such rules will make us more joyful in our soul, more winsome in our personality, more confident in our relationships and more useful in our witness and service for Jesus Christ to the world around us.
Pastor Ralph Partelow
Posted by Jennifer Herrmann at February 20, 2008 11:40 AM