Can you identify one time in the last week where you behaved in a way that's built somebody up intentionally? Not by accident or even by habit, but intentionally where you actually tried to build someone up? And you practice some skills, some behavior? Well, this session is all about that. How do we build people up through our actions through our our kindness? Well, there are a lot of external things we can do and we want to talk about that, for sure.

But it all begins with our heart and my contention is the way we build people up with our actions is to aggressively love people. For instance, today, I had a busy day a lot to do but a friend of mine is in the hospital for a knee replacement. It wasn't convenient for me. But, you know, I thought about my friend, he's loyal to me, he's kind to me, he's been a great friend. And I thought, you know, this isn't a crisis. But I bet he would just appreciate someone coming by and seeing him so I simply got up went to the hospital spent about three hours of my day to see him and, and simply encourage him and to love him to to be kind to build him up by my actions.

Now, I don't do that nearly enough. So I'm not raising myself up as an example. By and large today, I happened to do a good thing, intentionally counter to my schedule counter to what I may have done simply because I was prompted in my spirit to try to build up a friend Well, we all need to do that I think is a way of life. And I again, I found the best framework for this the best example of have what it really means to care for people or to love people, which is the heart of this. found in the book of First Corinthians again in the Bible. It's called the great love passage in the Bible, the apostle Paul gave this he was talking to a church, a group of people who weren't very loving toward one another.

They were, they were, you know, they were fighting against one another. They were doing very dishonorable things, immoral things with one another. And there are all sorts of actions that he addresses in this book that are negative. But he finally gets in it says the key is to love people. And I believe that's true. It's really our heart, as a man thinketh in his heart, so is that person so begins by thinking and feeling love, and then demonstrating love toward people.

And in First Corinthians 13, verses three through eight. We read a list of elements of love. I want you to look at these and think about these and begin to ponder on how your life matches up. With this, not just by action, but by intent by your heart. By the way, you see people, it says this love is patient. And it's kind, Love does not envy or boast.

It's not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It's not irritable, or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends or never fails.

When that a great list, I use that as a template in my life for years to say, am I a loving person at this moment? And I'll go back to this list and say, What am I violating here, not just to try to be righteous or self righteous, but simply to realize whether or not my heart's in alignment with what it means to be loving. And so the first step Building others up in our actions is to love people. And these are qualities that are good ways to love. The second step in this process is what I would call random acts of kindness. You know, it's great just to make it a habit to be kind to people day in and day out to do actions that build people up.

And a number of people have grappled with this whole issue of random acts of kindness over time. And we have a list for you in the Resource Center, I want you to look at and study. It's a list of multiple ways to demonstrate a kindness or have random acts of kindness. It can range from paying someone's bill, simply to a word of encouragement to washing the dishes, to letting someone get in front of you in a line. Maybe while you're driving and Many, many more. But you'll see a great list here, I want you to look at those and evaluate those to see how you're doing at your own random acts of kindness.

That's a key thing to be able to do. So here's what I want you to look at to evaluate to see how this applies to you. I want you to take one person with whom you have a close relationship and have that person evaluate you. When it comes to the qualities of Love, Love is patient love is kind that list that we have and we'll have in your resource notes. So I want you to look at yourself by doing an evaluation. And then secondly, your action step is to practice these above qualities start to turn this into your grid and practice these this coming week.

Remember over and over and over again your practice them to be tele become a way of life but it starts with understanding them and thinking about them first. And then finally I want you to look at the evaluation that we have around these talks about what unloving person looks like versus what a loving person looks like, we have a grid, and you will rate yourself like impatient or patient. One is I'm incredibly impatient. Nine is I'm incredibly patient, and rank yourself how you're doing from one to the other. In fact, this was a tool you could use with a spouse or a friend or a co worker that you're close to, to evaluate yourself and one another and get feedback from them. So you can be all the better.

I know this is rigorous, but this is really what's involved in building people up. So as we've talked about this, in this particular module, we've focused on the importance of building people up and and, and doing it by thinking rightly about people, and we've given you three ways to do that with our thoughts with our words. With our tongue, with our speech, and then with our actions, all of that's involved in building people up now there's much more that could be said, but this will get you well down the road on your journey. I'm looking forward to being with you. In the next module, be sure to do your work. Go into the Facebook group, and chat up what you're learning what your questions are, and I'll be communicating more with those of you in there giving you some more tips.

Thanks so much.