{"id":735,"date":"2012-08-03T00:00:24","date_gmt":"2012-08-03T04:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/?p=735"},"modified":"2012-08-03T09:33:02","modified_gmt":"2012-08-03T13:33:02","slug":"right-where-you-are-by-tammy-helfrich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/?p=735","title":{"rendered":"Right Where You Are by Tammy Helfrich"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am honored to have Tammy Helfrich guest post today.\u00a0 She is a remarkable and godly woman whom I have had the pleasure of meeting on the Micheal Hyatt Platform Launch Team.\u00a0 I really enjoy reading her posts as she never fails to bless me.\u00a0 Please be sure to follow her Blog<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A theme has continued to come to my mind over and over lately.<\/p>\n

You can make a difference right where you are.<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Courtesy of Creative Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

You don’t have to become a missionary and move to Africa.<\/p>\n

You don’t have to start a nonprofit.<\/p>\n

You don’t have to save the world in one day.<\/p>\n

After years of fighting with God, I finally gave up the illusion of control I thought I had. I surrendered everything to Him. But shortly afterwards, I was conflicted. I wanted to do something that mattered. I wanted to do something BIG. I wanted to change the world!<\/p>\n

As I wrestled with this, I kept hearing God’s voice.<\/p>\n

Make a difference here. <\/em><\/p>\n

Right where you are. <\/em><\/p>\n

Stop and pay attention to the people I’ve placed around you.<\/em><\/p>\n

That was eye-opening for me. I started thinking hard about that and spent lots of time talking with God about it.<\/p>\n

Where was the first place I started?<\/em><\/p>\n

In my family. With my spouse. I started paying attention. I also listened when God told me to “be quiet & back off.” My frustration and irritation with my spouse was not helping what God was trying to do in his heart. In fact, I was in the way. (Ouch!)<\/p>\n

I started paying more attention to my kids and trying to be present when I was with them. I tried not to be distracted by my phone or on Facebook or Twitter.<\/p>\n

Where else did I pay attention?<\/em><\/p>\n

At work. To the people in the cubicles next to me. I started listening and asking them about their families, their lives, their dreams. I took the time to get to know them.<\/p>\n

I started truly listening to God when He prompted me. If I felt led, I would reach out to someone at church. Someone I didn’t know and typically wouldn’t reach out to. I started obeying God faster. Even when it didn’t make sense, or I felt uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

I started doing more random acts of kindness. Without telling anyone about it. I started helping when I saw a need. Sometimes it was incredibly simple. Other times, it requires some sacrifice.<\/p>\n

But, guess what happened?<\/em><\/p>\n

God started blessing me just as much (if not more) than those I was paying attention to. And people started opening up to me. Other people weren’t paying attention to them. They felt they could be transparent with me. And all I did was listen.<\/p>\n

I am still learning when it comes to obeying God and learning to make a difference where I am. But I am now encouraging others to do the same.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t require heroic effort, usually. The majority of the time, I am amazed at how God uses the simplest acts of obedience to bless someone else.<\/p>\n

How has someone made a difference in your life recently?<\/p>\n

What can you do today to make a difference for someone around you?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am honored to have Tammy Helfrich guest post today.\u00a0 She is a remarkable and godly woman whom I have had the pleasure of meeting on the Micheal Hyatt Platform Launch Team.\u00a0 I really enjoy reading her posts as she never fails to bless me.\u00a0 Please be sure to follow her Blog\u00a0|\u00a0Facebook\u00a0|\u00a0Twitter. A theme has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=735"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":771,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735\/revisions\/771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}