Recent events and experiences have shown me how people are so hungry and long so deeply for affirmation. I have long been a glutton for affirmation myself that I have failed to see this need manifested in others. I have been seeking so much affirmation for myself that I have failed to see how others are also so hungry for affirmation. And if I try hard enough I can easily give the affirmation others need – with sincerity and in generosity.
As part of my New Year resolutions, I shall be more affirming of people around me. I shall affirm the goodness, the beauty and the truth in the lives of others, even when my selfishness would rather that I withhold such affirmation. I shall call a good act whenever I see one, specially one that is done out of love and generosity. I shall glory in the beauty I see around me, specially when done and created not out of any pecuniary gain but merely to show the beauty by which we have all be made. I shall extol moments of truth and condemn all falsities as we have been created to live by the Word, which is Truth itself.
I shall choose to praise God and people I encounter for the all good that is in them, without diminishing or glossing over the evil that there is also in the world. In so doing, I shall help in the good triumphing over evil. I shall choose to see the beauty there is around me and in people instead of dwelling on the ugly and sordid things happening in the world. In so doing, I shall help ensure that beauty gets the exposure and appreciation it truly deserves. I shall speak the truth even when it is difficult and dangerous to do so. In so doing, I shall help in proclaiming the reality that God has inserted Himself in our ordinary lives to transform them into something most extraordinary and something most awesome to believe.
Yes, I shall proclaim the Gospel of Goodness, Beauty and Truth. An affirmation may just be a simple, single word but it can change everything.
He went around all of Galilee,
teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom,
and curing every disease and illness among the people.
His fame spread to all of Syria,
and they brought to him all who were sick with various diseases
and racked with pain,
those who were possessed, lunatics, and paralytics,
and he cured them.
And great crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, and Judea,
and from beyond the Jordan followed him.
Matthew 4: 12-17, 23-25