How Are You Remembered?

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you (Philippians 1:3 NKJV)

This is the earmark of a healthy relationship.  Every time the Apostle Paul thinks back on the Philippian believers, he thanks God for them.  Can I say that about my relationships?  When I think about people with whom I have had relationships, is thanksgiving what comes to mind?  Even more disturbing is the question, “When people think of me, are they thankful for the time they spent with me?” 

In the mix of every human transaction there will be good times as well as bad.  So why do some relationships bring fond and thankful memories when others bring anything but a heart of gratitude and actually muster up feelings of good riddance?  The answer to this question is found in the scriptural principle of sowing and reaping. Consider each relationship as a bank account into which we make deposits of love, understanding, consistent acts of giving, and liberal amounts of trust, and from which we also make withdrawals of hate, misunderstanding, selfish acts of taking, and on-going disloyalty. You cannot harvest goodness and thanksgiving out of an account into which you have only sown wickedness and discord.  When we live selfishly with others, we continue to make withdrawals from the account to the point that we fall into that category of a “good riddance” when they remember us.  Yet, if we spend our lives investing sacrificially into others, thinking of their needs and their interests, encouraging and building up, we will fill the account with goodness, trust, and love to the point of overflowing.  Then when they think of us, the thankfulness of Paul’s sentiments regarding the Philippians will be what floods their hearts and minds.

I cannot choose for others how they treat me, but I can certainly choose to pour myself out sacrificially for others so that when they remember me it will be with thoughts of gratitude.  Today I will look for ways in which I can serve and be a blessing to those who God has put in my life.