“Let someone else praise you, and not your own mouth; an outsider, and not your own lips. As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart.” Proverbs 27:2,19
I am going through this Bible plan with our church, and usually there will be a section that will grab my attention. This morning, when I was reading through this proverb, these 2 verses jumped out at me. The business that I am in, mortgage industry, I depend on referrals to build my business. If I don’t do a good job, or allow my word to be my word, that will reflect on the way I get referred. If I do a good job, and if I do what I say I am going to do, that will reflect on the way I get referred as well. It seems so simple, right, just do a good job, let your word be your word, and you shouldn’t have any worries. If only that was the case… unfortunately there are always circumstances that jump in the way, not my own, but rates can change in the drop of a hat; there could be circumstances with the client that they were unaware of and it can affect the outcome; there are others involved in the process that either are part of the team or they are outside of the team but we depend on them to do their job… a lot of factors.
But this is not what really grabbed my attention today. What if, like my business, your life depended on referrals. If you had to depend on someone else praising you, would they? In other words, would the people that you are with talk highly of you? Would the restaurants you go to, the coffee houses you go to, the gas stations, what about your fellow employees… would they give you a good referral?
When I read about how the water reflects the face, it’s the same as your life reflecting your heart, this can be encouraging or discouraging. When you look at the water, and you see the reflection, there is no way to filter what you see; you can’t change the setting, you can’t change the lighting, you can’t get rid of blemishes or whatever else is done to change the image… what you see in that reflection is what you get. I think about the creation, how beautiful this reflection looks. This is the same as your life, this is the same as your heart. What is your heart reflecting right now? If you were to take out all the filters, how would it look? God wants your life…your heart to be a beautiful reflection!
For me today, of course I want the most referrals I can get, when someone talks about getting a home loan, I want to be the name that is mentioned time and time again. But more importantly, I want to Care Enough to Battle in this life to reflect the Lord, to reflect His love, to reflect His peace, to reflect His goodness. I don’t want to be fake or hypercritical, trying to change my image of someone who I am not, I want my reflection to be who I truly am.
Today, look at your life, and see where you can improve. Care enough to change if there needs to be change… care enough to say hi to the person behind the counter… care enough to care who you are around. One thing people may not realize in this life, each one of us do depend on referrals, it just may not be the referrals that support you financially, but they do support you emotionally, spiritually, and possibly physically!!
