Who Goes First? By Jesufemi

Love one another with brotherly affection [as members of one family], giving precedence and showing honor to one another. Romans 12:10(Amplified version).

Sometime ago, a friend borrowed a note from me and promised to return it the next day. My friend almost swore but I stopped her and just took her words for it. A week passed but the note was not returned. At this point, I was getting angry and desperate. I needed the note to write in everyday and also study, moreover I had to travel soon. Every time I remembered to ask my friend on phone, my phone was always off and for some reasons I could not understand, it always skipped my mind every time my phone is switched on until one lucky day, I remembered (actually my phone was almost dead by then too), I quickly sent a whatsapp message telling her I needed my note.

Momentarily I forgot my manners because all I wanted was for her to get the message before my phone went off and guess what? She did! She happened to be online at that moment, but did I get the response I wanted? No! Instead, I got a greater shock. She was no longer in school! Unfortunately, she was involved in an accident, got injured on her leg and couldn’t bring my note anytime soon. She apologized but I was no longer interested in the note. I wanted to know if she was safe and sound. What I was supposed to do at first, became my priority. She couldn’t see me but I was disappointed in myself for being so selfish and from there I learnt my lesson.

So many times, we forget to put others before ourselves, we want everything to go our own way and so we don’t care about others. We fail to remember that if we are asked for or to do something without us being put into consideration, we get unhappy. Dale Carnegie in his book ‘How to win friends and influence people’ said, “to make people like you, you have to make them feel important and do it sincerely.”

Little acts of kindness like asking about the welfare of that person before pouring out your needs or ideas at the person wouldn’t hurt. After this, not criticizing, condemning or complaining works too. I was fast to complain about the delay in the return of the note instead of asking and understanding my friend’s stand. If I had done this at first, I would have made a better impression to my friend and also get what I wanted.

The personal pronoun ‘I’ is the most used word in conversations. Nobody is concerned about the other person. All we care about is ourselves and that’s why we complain about not getting along with people and not getting things done as we want them to.

Putting others first, showing that we care about them and what they want would get us what we want and would also improve our relationship with them. Like babies, be the first to reach out.

Remember, Jesus put our salvation before His life, giving His life as the price for our salvation. Greater love hath no  man than this, that a man lays his life for his friends. There is truly no greater love than this and this same love is available to you and for you.

You Are Never Alone.