What do You Want Others to See in You?

1 Timothy 4:12 - Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.

Whether good or bad you’re going to be an example to those around you.
 
What do you want others to see in you?
 

• Are you the overly needy person who wants attention? Are you someone who always wants to be the center of everything? Do you speak louder than those around you, or laugh when something really isn’t funny just to keep control of the conversation?
• Are you the angry person that cuts others down in an effort to make yourself feel better? Are you quick to point out other’s faults while bragging about your exploits? Do you have a small threshold for your anger spilling out all over everyone near you? Do you use your anger to get your way all of the time?
• Or are you the person who cares more about what the other person is feeling than to talk and talk about yourself? Do you strive for balancing what you want to say with giving enough time to the other person so they can finish their line of thinking? Do you see a need, and try to fill it because you care about the other person?

 
Take care with what you do and say. It may be difficult to speak kindly to others sometimes, but doing so reaps a rich relationship where your friends truly feel that you care.
 
This will be the result:
 

• People will pay attention to you and your needs without you seeking attention.
• You’ll trade cutting your friends down to making them feel better about themselves and so they will.
• You will be that person who cares more about other people than yourself, and in return, you may be surprised that others will lavish care upon you.

 
You may feel afraid to look out for others before yourself. But you may be surprised at how good you feel about your life when it’s centered on someone other than yourself.
 
Kellyexeter.com.au, in their article, “5 Easy Things We Can All Do to Look Out For Each Other,” says that you may think you don’t have enough time to take care of yourself let alone others, but in fact, you do. The article has some ideas such as give people the benefit of the doubt because you don’t know what’s going on in their lives, and ditch the sarcasm and snark for cheering people up.
 
Even though the Bible verse above speaks about a young person, the second part talks about the kind of example you set. We are to be an example that God can use to show the world his love, through our speech and deeds. And this is the kind of example that will answer the question to what you want others to see in you in a positive way. Be that example, and others will notice.

Learn more