Tell it as it is/Donna MANN

According to my June 25th morning devotion, "Religious books with a self-help theme sell better than other kinds of religious books. People who visit the religion section are looking for the same thing they would look for in the self-help section: advice. However, Jesus did not preach self-help or how to have "your best life now."  He did not try to fill people with positive thinking and mantras."


I've written two 'self-help' books and I think they have a place in today's lifestyle, however, I know what the author means about ‘not filling people with positive thinking’.  Having said that, thinking positive reduces stress and limits negative self-talk, so it has its place.  

Yet, I can be guilty of positive thinking when I should be cautioning. The question I'm asking myself in this blog is how much do I pass it on in the form of encouragement or building another up, just for something to say. Maybe I should be finding a way to be forthright in a loving manner.

The term, "build one another up" is often used in sync with the word encouragement. “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing” (Thessalonians 5:11). Can building up be honest and encouragement at the same time? I think so.

When people asked me how I was after my daughter died, they wanted to hear, "I'm good. Getting back to normal." If I had responded, as I would have liked to, I would have probably rendered people helpless.

How many times do we allow ourselves to be honest? Can ‘building one another up’ or opening the way for someone to build us up help us consider the difference between positive thinking, thinking positive, being honest with one another and telling it as it is?

Blessings,

Donna

Come on over to donnamann.org - some good news over there about my new novel, Emma's Call.