Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Getting Personal

I am unofficially our church messenger. Some how everyone just knows that if they need to quickley get a message to a group of people, the best person for the job is Mary!!! :) I am always getting asked to give out messages. Mary could you let everyone know we're havin a surprise party for Sis. Abbott Wednesday night after church... Mary could you tell everyone there is going to be a youth group picture... Mary can you let everyone know that the Ladies of Legacy meeting is closed...Mary remind everyone to bring their stuff for the Mother's day potluck...etc... And so I do! Usually it's in a mass text message.
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Since sending out these mass text messages I have noticed something. I'll send out a mass text message to a bunch of people and usually thats fine. However, there are times when I NEED to get a response back from people. For example, one day I sent out a text message to our youth group, Hey guys! Remember outreach tonight at @7pm Who all is going? And you know what will VERY often happen? No responses from like ANYONE!!! I am sitting there like ok I guess no one is going to outreach. Like one person will call me, Hey are we still doing outreach tonight? I am like uh, I don't know. I'm thinking, Hmmmm...should I cancel it or what?! Then we would get to outreach and everyone had showed up. I was like OMW! Why didn't you guys respond back to my text?! They are just like, "Uh, I don't know!"
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This happened several more times and I found it to be very agravating! So I decided to try something the next time I had to send out a mass text message. I had to send out a mass text message about my brother's birthday. So I sent out one mass text message as a reminder...Hey everyone! John's bday is tonight @6:30pm BUT then I wanted to know who was going so I sent out another mass text message to everyone but I worded it differently. I said...Heeeeeey are YOU going to John's party tonight? And you know what happened? People started responding!!! Everyone was letting me know weather or not they were going to the party! 
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You know why? You know what the difference way? You know what made everyone respond back to my mass text message this time? The difference was that I made it PERSONAL! Even though I was sending it out to a bunch of people, I directed it to each person individually. There is something about us as humans that likes when stuff is personal. Think about Christmas cards. Isn't it just a little tacky when you get a beautiful, elaborate Christmas card, but the person doesn't even bother to give you any sort of personal message? But there is just something special when they take the time to say something to you!!!
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I am glad that I can say that I have a God that knows how to get PERSONAL! Although the bible was written for EVERYONE, God has individual, personal messages in there, for each and everyone of us. Jeremiah 29:11 says, For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. HOW COOL IS THAT?! God thinks about me. Think about that!!! There are millions and millions of people in the world right NOW, and while God is thinking about them, He is thinking about YOU too!!!
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God's NOT just thinkin about yo' daddy! He's NOT just thinkin about yo' mama! God's thinking about YOU my brother! He's thinking about YOU girlfriend! Think about how happy you would feel if tonight you got a PERSONAL text message from like your dream-come-true person. I for one would be like SCREAMIN AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS. (Then I would forward the message to ALL my friends in a mass text message! LOL) WELL God loves you! His word is filled with individual messages for you.  TONIGHT He is sending YOU a personal text message that says...
I'm thinking about you!
God