00:00:00 Thanks for joining me on episode 662 of the inspired stewardship podcast. Hey, I'm Matt ham, author of redefined rich, and I challenge you to live richly by listening to the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Mader, that the key to all of this is the relationship we have with others. If all we ever do is surround ourselves with people that see the world exactly the way that we do,
00:00:33 which is our tendency. When we build relationship, then oftentimes we aren't exposed to other people's realities. And instead, when someone with a different set of use comes in, we tend to shout them down. Welcome, and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time,
00:00:58 your talent and your treasures for your true calling and the inspired stewardship podcast who learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world. And today's spiritual foundation episode about investing in others. I talk with you about why relationship is key. I share a Fijian chapter four verses two through three, and how important I think this passage is right now.
00:01:33 And I talk about how this can change our conversations from talking to listening. It all comes down to relationship, whether it's our relationship with others, whether it's our relationship with ourselves, whether it's our relationship with God, we have relationships with things and people around us. And the way we interact with them is so important. It affects everything we do because at the end of the day,
00:02:06 we are in many ways made up of the interactions that we have and the relationships that we build with others, they affect who we are. They affect how we see the world. They affect our core being, you know, when you were growing up, your mother used to tell you not to hang out with that person or those people, because it would rub off on you.
00:02:28 There's expressions about how it, you know, watch who you hang out with because you become the average of the five people that you hang out with the most, you hear these sorts of expressions. And we kind of think of them as old wives tales or just cliches. But the truth is there is a real effect that comes from the relationships that you have.
00:02:51 If you surround yourself with negativity and negative people, then you tend to see the world in a negative light. If you surround yourself positivity and positive people, then you tend to see the world in a positive light. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy, because it's hard to be negative when you're surrounded by positive people. But if you continue to insist on doing that,
00:03:13 oftentimes you will no longer hang out with those positive people. Instead, you will be attracted to and attract to you. People who are much more negative and it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. And the truth is at the end of the day, the core to building relationships is a lot about what we've talked about with Al, where we're talking about listening and mindset and how we see things,
00:03:39 whether you're a leader of an organization, a leader of your family, or a leader of yourself, it doesn't matter. A Fusion's chapter four verses two and three says be completely humble and gentle. Be patient bearing with one another in love, make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. You know, this idea of looking first to each other,
00:04:04 with a spirit of humility and gentleness, a, a spirit of patience of bearing with one of the other. I don't see this happening all too often today. Instead I see folks who are shouting at the top of their lungs Songs, their own view. They're not spinning Anytime listening to others, they're not asking questions. They're making statements. And this happens on both sides of the political aisle.
00:04:30 This happens in a number of different views and it's because people see themselves as correct. They see themselves as right. They see themselves understanding what's going on and others need to be taught or educated. But the truth is that you do not convince others of an opinion In, by shouting at them. You often do it by instead asking questions because odds are really good.
00:04:57 They hold their opinion for reasons, reasons that you may not agree with, but there are reasons there's something about their relationships and their journey that has caused them to see the world the way they see it right now. It's hard for me to remember that sometimes even myself, I see people shouting and that makes me angry. That makes me hurt. And I want to shout back.
00:05:22 If instead you come at it with patients and you come back, Add it with love and you come at it with a heart of listening. Often you can begin to understand, maybe you don't agree with the person, but you can at least understand how they got to that point. You know, whatever you see people hurting and you see injustice in the world.
00:05:46 It's not about not taking action. It's not about not standing up and fighting against that injustice, but it is sometimes about understanding where it came from. And then out of that, understanding, you often can make better strides in changing it. And again, don't get me wrong. This isn't a political blow against the right or the left or anyone else.
00:06:10 It's simply what we do is human beings, because all too often, we forget that the key to all of this is the relationship we have with others. If all we ever do is surround ourself with people that see the world exactly the way that we do, which is our tendency. When we build relationship, then oftentimes we aren't exposed to other people's realities.
00:06:34 And instead, when someone with a different set of use comes in, we tend to shout them down instead of open up our hearts and our minds and listen to them first. So my challenge to you this week is how can you listen? How can you step out of your comfort zone and build a relationship with someone that perhaps doesn't see the world, the way you do that doesn't view things the way you do that has had a different reality and set of experiences than you.
00:07:04 How can you sit down and listen to them and open up your heart and your mind to hear their journey. And even if you don't agree with them, to at least validate the fact that they have a reality that they see, thanks for listening. Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast, as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively,
00:07:35 listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor, go over to facebook.com/inspired stewardship and like our Facebook page and market that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there until next time,
00:08:09 invest your time, your talent and your treasures, develop your influence and impact the world.