In all of my years of planning birthday parties, events and having special occasions, here are two of the best pieces of advice I ever got: 1. Don’t beg people to support you 2. Appreciate the people who support you and have grace for the ones who don’t I used to get stuck in feeling like I needed to be offended that certain people don’t support my endeavors. I would post a picture of a small dinner I had and would get post comments and private messages of people saying how excluded they felt. So I would plan bigger and more extravagant personal events because I would feel bad, just for the same people to not show up. I would have Community events, conferences and wellness events through my own businesses and people would not show up and say they wish they had. These same people would post pictures of expensive tickets and long rides they took to support people that they don’t personally know, but are a “big deal”. So naturally I had become offended, hardened and even saddened by the lack of support.
Then at one of my conferences a guest speaker came and said something that changed my whole perspective. She said “almost everyone in this room is someone you begged to come to this event and it shows.” I had to look around and realize that it was true. I had begged, given out free tickets to and made deals with almost everyone in the room. So even though I got the “support”, it wasn’t genuine. The guest told me never to beg anyone to come to any of my events again. That I needed to trust who God sent to my events, because my purpose is to impact people with the word of God. It’s not about feeling like you had the most attended event. So then I stopped caring and I subconsciously started to categorize those people who I knew wouldn’t support me. I eventually learned balance in appreciating the people who do support me and accepting and showing grace to those who don’t. I had to learn that everyone is wired differently, everyone has their own passions that they support, yet everyone should still know what you have going on. They may not always show up, but that’s ok because God ALWAYS places the right people in the room for the occasions.
That’s what really matters.
I’m sharing this to help you fight the spirit of discouragement. It’s so easy to get discouraged because you don’t feel like you have the support you want. It’s easy to say, “never mind” or “this isn’t worth it.” When you chose to stop doing something you know you were called to do because of the actions of humans you can’t control, you are sacrificing the people that may have actually benefited from what you were doing. There are people that need what you have to offer and sometimes their lives depend on it.
So always remember not to beg anyone to see value in your endeavors and don’t stop what you are doing because things don’t look the way you think they should. Be thankful and appreciate people who are there to support you, but show grace to those who don’t. As long as they’re still alive, they still have time. God will send them when he’s ready for them to receive what you have. No matter what it is. So until then, put your all into the people that are right in front of you.
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