Impact
vs Importance
by Teri Spray

What is more important? Making an impact, or having importance in the world around me?

When I celebrated my 21st born-again birthday with Jesus this last month, I sensed the Lord telling me to change my perspective on life. It doesn't matter if I ever get a book published nationally or speak to multitudes. Instead, it is my impact on people which has eternal value. A person who makes an impact causes lives to change internally. A person who has importance merely moves and shakes their environnment. I have decided it is my impact which makes a difference and not my self-importance.

While we home educate our children in the quiet privacy of our homes, it is difficult to measure the impact of our labors. Some days it is nearly impossible to feel as though what we are doing has importance between mopping the kitchen floor and grading a math worksheet. It is possible that you are making a major impact in the kingdom of God as you home educate your children. As you teach your children day-in and day-out about a God who loves them, and who created them with supernatural giftings and talents, you are changing lives for the future in God's kingdom. That is making an impact!

Though your work is hidden and quiet, and may not seem important in the eyes of those in this world, the impact of your words is incredibly powerful. The people who struggle the most, seem to be those who speak strong negative words over themselves and their loved ones. Parents who speak honestly with sincere hope over their children and themselves always seem to do better in the long run. Those are the parents who usually report miraculous breakthroughs during their school year.

1 Cor 13:1-2 states, "If I speak with the tongues of men and angels, but do not have love, I am no more than a clanging gong..." Heaven forbid that I become a clanging gong to my children! "... If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing." I want to express God's love to others, to cause them to walk in the fullness of God's love for them and their loved ones. For without God's love driving everything I do, I am nothing. The love with which I can share my message is the vehicle which carries forth communication into hearts.

Therefore, I choose today to focus on the impact of my words and the measure of my love with which I serve others. My goal is not to achieve, but rather to become a loving and obedient servant of God. Then perhaps others will be influenced by my example, and that IS important! That is making an impact!