I love this quote from one of Andy Stanley’s messages a few months ago:
“Your happiness can be measured by the quality of your relationships, not your prosperity or your progress.”
And it’s so true. When your relationships are great, life is great. When they’re not going so well, life tends to be harder and less fulfilling. Everyone on some level is wired up that way.
So how do we make our relationships great? They can’t be perfect all the time. Tension is inevitable. But what’s the secret to maintaining and even growing your circle of friends?
It’s all based on this principle:
People love to be around loving people.
You don’t have to be super attractive.
You don’t have to have a lot of money.
You don’t have to be very funny.
You don’t even need to be up on pop culture.
But you do need to be loving.
I have a friend who people love to love. They can’t do enough for the guy. They won’t say a word bad about him either. It’s not because they’re afraid he’ll hear about it. And it’s not even because they think he’s perfect. It’s because they love him so much, genuinely, and fully from their heart.
Why?
Because he loves them fully from his. He can’t do enough for them. He won’t say a word bad about them. Not because he’s afraid they’ll hear about it. And not because he thinks they’re perfect, either. It’s because he has a big heart and loves them with all of it.
People love loving people. The more you love people the more likely they’ll love you, too.
Jeff McClung 