Who are you connected to and why?
I have heard the saying, “People come in your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime, you just need to determine which they fell into.” I believe there is more to this. I believe that even if a person is in your life for a season or a lifetime, they are there for a reason. Too often people overlook the importance of why they were connected. They fail to make the connection to their connections.
What have you learned from your connections? You can learn something even from those you least expect too.
Think for a moment about the most common thing people do at the end of a year…begin disconnecting from people. The revelation of “I need to cut off negative people,” or “everyone cannot go where I’m going,” suddenly hits every year in December as one prepares for the new year.
A vicious cycle…
Would you need to keep repeating a cycle if you learned your lesson to start with?
Before “suddenly” disconnecting, the real reflection should be, why were we connected in the first place? What was I supposed to learn from all of this? Surely, it may not be as simple as cutting off negative people.
Perhaps the lesson is discovering why YOU MAKE the decisions to surround yourself with the same types of people. Perhaps, you have more in common with them than you realize and have not worked through this issue yet. Perhaps one has not learned the impact of your attitude in life and the results thereof.
For everyone the lessons are different.
Through connections, one can learn how to live as well as how not to live.
The best example of this is that of a parent-child relationship. There are many others to utilize but this always hits home for people.
When you were younger, your parents (or a parental figure) would give you guidance and advice. Your younger self, knowing everything and nothing at the same time, felt you didn’t need to listen to that advice. Later you would find that you eventually did some of the same things your parents did. Rather than learning the lesson verbally you ended up learning the lesson through your own personal experience.
Now, many would say, well we had to learn for ourselves but I will push back to say, did you really?
Perhaps, someone went before you, struggled and learned the hard way so that you would not have to. Perhaps, in what they went through, they were to become your guide, the one who would talk with you and warn you to say, HEY WATCH FOR THAT STUMBLING BLOCK. Perhaps, they were to help prevent you from falling as you learned from their experience. Perhaps, THAT pain was unnecessary for you but you decided to unnecessarily experience it.
Interestingly enough, when you fell that parent just helped you up and helped you move forward. If you really learned your lesson, you would normally turn and say, I’m sorry I should have listened. This is followed by a comforting parent’s voice, “it’s ok…don’t do it again.”
Fast forward to life as we now know it. We still have these same figures or connections in our life that we learn from. Some are up close and personal and some may be more distant but if we watch and listen closely we can learn a few things.
These connections could be friends, family members, leaders, celebrities, business owners…anyone and guess what, even someone younger than you. Basically, anyone that has done something we have yet to experience, enter into, etc. Anyone that will guide us down the path we will soon travel.
Here is a basic example:
If you’re destined to own a business you may unexpectedly find yourself around prominent and not so prominent entrepreneurs. It’s common that people gravitate to those successful ones but I challenge you to learn from those who were not as successful too. While it is great to learn what someone did to succeed it is just as important to learn why someone has struggled. Perhaps you would learn what to watch for, what to attempt to avoid…you would be prepared to see the stumbling block before you tripped and fell.
Again, you can apply this to ANY area, you just have to begin to use a little wisdom in understanding the purpose of your connections.
There is always a reason for your connections even if they are in your life for a short season or a lifetime.
Have you taken the time to examine your connections and why they exist?
Are you making the most of your connections or are you undervaluing them?
Don’t waste time in your life by not learning from your connections and experiencing unnecessary situations.
If by chance you make the decision to disregard the lessons sent through your connections, remember the child that turned to the parent hurt from the fall…
When you’ve realized you’ve fallen, turn to your Father with a repentant heart. He will help you up and get you moving again.
He will again send you NEW connections but this time, pay attention and do not make the same mistake twice.
This time, value your connections and take in every possible lesson.
This time, Make the Connection to Your Connection.
