one bad bulb.

I looked at my calendar to determine what weekend we could put up our Christmas decorations, and the ONLY weekend we had available was the first weekend in November! I realize it’s a little early and a hard shift with Halloween remnants still lurking and Thanksgiving barely on the horizon, but you have to schedule these things. So, we proceeded to get the trees and decorations out of the attic, and from the garage we collected the trees that have flocking on them (which, did you know, will yellow if left in the attic?) And, we joyfully put lights on the outside trees, hung our stockings by the fireplace with care, and then turned our air conditioner on because the weather outside wasn’t quite frightful yet. (Unless you count the tornado warning we got later that night) I even proceeded to turn on a Christmas movie in hopes it would help me get in the Christmas spirit.

Some of you may be judging me and that’s okay. Judge away. But do you know what the most frustrating thing about this decorating process, apart from the side eye you are perhaps giving me? I went to plug in my beautiful tree and the lights did NOT turn on! I didn’t understand. Our tree is only a little over a year old and it was already not doing its job. It looked so sad. Like it was even disappointed in itself.

I learned something that day. It only takes ONE bad bulb to affect the entire strand of lights that it is connected to. ONLY ONE. I marveled at this realization. How could one tiny bulb amongst a hundredfold strand cause the majority not to shine brightly and even cause their light to go out completely? And then I realized this is the SAME thing with humans.
The Bible spends a lot of time warning us not to underestimate the impact of influence in our lives. We are to always be kind, show the love of Jesus, not judge others and offer grace BUT we are to guard our hearts and minds. We are human and other humans can have a tremendous impact, good and bad, on our lives.

Matthew 5:14-16 says, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Here are the questions I will leave you to ask yourself:
Has your light gone out?
Have you caused other lights to go out?
Have you allowed others to influence the way you think and act?
Are there influences in your life that you need to lovingly let go of?
Have you been the one influencing the entire strand and making it go dark?

My prayer for you is that you will allow God to shine brightly through you, that you will surround yourself with others that help you be the very best version of yourself, and realize that you can have so much positive influence in the lives of others. Be careful who you surround yourself with and remember that YOU are a LIGHT not meant to be dimmed, covered, or sit in the dark!