day 1285: The Power Of A Child's Voice

"They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger."

One thing I know for sure is that there won't be a shortage of TV commercials during this holiday season that will feature children, from babies to awkward growing pre-teens.  There is a lot of power and attention that gets given to children and especially to the voice of a child. Look no further than the adorable AT&T "It's Not Complicated" series.  It's almost like we can't not watch when these come on the TV.  And we can bet safely that there will be more to come and that advertisers will use every angle with kids to pull on our heartstrings this season. Might be something to consider!

The same will be happening in churches all across the country as children sing Christmas hymns and we will see the love of Jesus through the innocence and genuineness of a child.  Why didn't God just send Jesus to us as a teenager or adult?  God knows that we wonder in the birth of a child and that only the most hardened can't see that only God can give us the creation of a human being.  Jesus came to us as a child and then challenged us to never lose the heart and mind of a child so that we can be open to all that He wants to do in our lives.  Have we lost the spirit of the Child?  Have we lost the voice of the Child? Let's take this coming weekend and see if we can't recapture some of that wonder and bring it back to work with us on Monday.

Reference: Luke 2:16 (New Living Translation)

day 1242: What We Do And Who Is Watching

"Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart."

How many times a day do you look in on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn?  If you say more than a few times a day, you are not alone.  We are now seeing numbers that would look like social media sites are becoming a large percentage of our discretionary time. I know that I personally, check in at least three times a day to Facebook, maybe five times on Twitter and even though less so, once a day to LinkedIn. I am not a big user of Instagram or Pinterest (although I do stuff there) but lots of people would say they are on these services once or more than once a day as well.  Every time we frequent these sites we are providing and leaving data that they can turn around and use for their own revenue and growth purposes.  Yes, from even what website we leave to enter a service is tracked, as well as where we go next.  As everything gets more and more personalized, we should imagine that our social media sites of choice will become sirens that call to us to come to them from wherever we are on the internet.  And, we should be aware of this as we make our choices.  This past week, Facebook started making available their data to the major television networks about our behaviors and action on their site.  For Facebook this crosses the range of activities like comments and shares that we might have about TV programs (please no spoiling as we are in the time-shift era and you can’t assume I have seen the last episode yet) and their prize jewel, the “Likes” to do what they can to entice new and more TV advertisers. Facebook says (and I believe them) that the data is collected and provided in aggregate to protect the privacy of their users.  That said, this not going to go away and this is not just for TV.  We can get and do the same with our own companies.  I was working with a small company last week who hadn’t thought of those who “liked” a picture of their business as potential customers who can be sold to in a tailored way, based on the subject of the picture they liked.

I write a lot about how we are to be Christ-like examples to others with whom we work. I emphasize this because I see the power of this every day and in every workplace I enter.  We are each building a big data set of reputation points that others are trying to figure out and apply to their own lives.  With each each action and word we leave behind a trail and history of who we are to date.  Others see that data and try and project who they could be from who we are.  If we are Christ-like, love life and make the most of what we have been given, then they want to know how and what they need to do to have that type of life.  If we are inconsistent, or leave trails that are muddied by bad choices, bad words, bad actions, then they can’t make sense of what we say we are and who we really are. Today, leave a data trail that others want to follow.  If you ask God to help you do so, and you commit to doing so, you will make a difference for the Kingdom!

Reference: Ephesian 6:6 (New Living Translation)