As I head back home today from a week of facilitating QMQ training in Missouri, my mind is focused on getting home – back where things are familiar and somewhat predictable. Yet, each and every trip and training session is one of meeting and enjoying new people with their unique perspectives and skill sets. I always marvel at the variety and differences that God has created in each person. When I first started doing these sessions, I had a mindset that everyone should have “perfect scores” and if they didn’t I should try to help them fix themselves. The more of the sessions I facilitated, the more I realized that not only was this impossible, but would hinder their calling and proper functioning at work as well as society as a whole.

Over the years my fixed mindset evolved as I saw really good people with less than perfect scores populate the seats of my classes. While we may say we all “accept the fact” that everyone is created differently, most of us may not be as tolerant of those differences as we might want to admit. I think, if we admit it that is why God said “it is not good for man to be alone.” If he said that then there must be a reason. Now that I rapidly approach my 7^th decade, it is becoming more and more apparent to me that those differences, whether we like it or not, are what grow and develop us into our intended state. I would say that marriage is the ultimate growth experience. I mean that from a positive paradigm, despite the fact that anyone who has been married knows that it can, at times, be the most trying of all experiences.

Once God justified us and moved us into the sanctification phase of life, He said we must grow and develop. People and circumstances are the most prolific tools to accomplish that purpose before our glorification and graduation to Heaven. So, the question we must ask is: “Why is each person in our lives and what is our role in the process?” Since we cannot be married to everyone and invest large amounts of time and influence in everyone, how do we bring something positive to each person? In my experience in simply amounts to learning what you can from them and giving them something that provides the potential for positive growth and development. In most cases that is whatever will help them be who God created them to be. THAT requires that you understand them as quickly and profoundly as possible.

Understanding and engaging others is what creates success in life as well as business. To do so you have to ask questions to get the answers you need to plant the seeds of growth that God intended for them. Questions make people think. Our society and many in the past has been entertainment oriented rather than growth oriented. In other words, they made statements with their actions or interactions rather than probing for answers. Are all of our questions going to be good? Of course not, any more than our actions are all going to be proper. We learn by asking the wrong questions. However, we refine our interaction and deepen our engagement with others when God enables us to ask the right ones. Only we engage can we identify what is important and valued. Now you and the person you are interacting with are positioned for growth and development.

What a person values tells you what is in their heart, providing the insight for you to assess and apply to the sanctification process to you as well as them. Then it is just a matter of identifying what role God wants you to play in the process. Ultimately your role is to help them glorify God by being who He created them to be. Since we are all created for His glory what will it take for you to see Him at work in others – especially if they do not know Him, His ways and ultimately what He created them to be? You can be the catalyst to help them on their journey. When you do and when you say what He puts in your spirit, you too will grow and fulfill your purpose. Ask questions, identify direction and add what has been placed in your spirit as it was divinely apportioned for such a time as this. Engage everyone, no matter whether they have a personality you like or not.

Love, Dad.