To Be A Blessing

A little life lesson on being a blessing

So this will be short but sweet, I’d say ‘like me’ but I’m neither short and only sweet when I have food…

I once heard someone say that you should always leave a person better than when you found them, this was in reference to ending a relationship and ensuring you’re not leaving a trail of brokenness and bitterness. This concept is a lovely one, if we all did this there’d be much less walls to tear down with new people and much more trust, ease and joy.

Whenever I hear people talk about being ‘blessed’ they’re 9 times out of 10 referring to the fact that they have a lot of money, a nice car on the drive and a lovely house where they can tend to their rose bush in the garden whilst overseeing the babbling brook that flows through the bottom. Although these things are great to have and all glory is pointed back to God for owning them it’s made me question what it is to be blessed and re-think my own perception of this phrase.

We’re about to go from 1 to 100 here but…when people die, you never ever hear people say ‘you know, he was such a blessing, he had such a lovely car’ or ‘him and his house were a joy to be around honestly, such a blessed man and house’ because that’d not only be weird but it’d reduce the person to being blessed because of their material possessions. We often hear people say ‘he was such a blessing, always so happy and joyous’ which tells me that actually, what the bible says is right. Being blessed is about character, it’s about us and the impact we leave on the world.

You can be a blessing with your presence, with your smile or with a hug. Yesterday I was in TKMaxx and I was commenting (out loud but to myself lol) that I couldn’t find the shorts. This lady overheard this and said “they’re over there on that rack next to the sports wear love”. That lady was an actual blessing to me. Her warmth, her kindness, if she were to die tomorrow and I happened to somehow be at her funeral I’d tell that story to illustrate how much of a lovely person she seemed to be - not the fact that she jumped in to her 22 plate Mercedes afterwards.

Am I demonising riches and saying that all those with money and fancy things aren’t nice people? No, definitely not, by all means go buy the car and get the house but I’m more so thinking about what’s beneath all of that. What will people say about us when we die? What state are we leaving each and every person we encounter in? I used to work I retail and some customers would add to my day in both very positive and very negative ways. The ones who chatted at the till were ones that left me on a high, the ones who practically ignored me and were rude left me wanting to punch them up to somewhere high.

We can chose which ways we add to peoples days (unintentionally rhyme there) and really make a positive impact on the people in our world. It doesn’t have to be anything huge in our day to day lives, a smile at a stranger, a conversation with a sales assistant. In our relationships, both romantic and friendship, we can chose to treat that person in a way that if it were to end they’d think back on us and it fondly, they’d feel better having known us and not feel damaged by the way we treated them. We can be a blessing to people in our lives in both big and small ways.

So, this is a challenge - be a blessing to someone. Anyone. A stranger or someone you know and you’ll indirectly bless yourself too.

Cass

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Hi, thanks for reading! My names Cassandra Maria, I’m a comedy writer and creator from Birmingham. Day to day I present on three different shows across Premier Gospel and Premier Christian Radio and oversee Premier Gospel’s social media platforms. In 2021 I did a TEDXBrum talk on why it’s important to laugh in even the worst of times entitled ‘How Laughter Helps Horror’ and have a skincare page dedicated to bringing a little light to people fighting chronic skin conditions.