Be generous when inviting others.
All my life I feel like I've been blessed with great friends. They've added so much happiness to my life, and despite my umm--what's the word--lack of keeping in touch, I really do think that a friend worth having is a friend for life.
But even with the greatest friends, I--on occasion--have felt left out. Don't we all?
We can all remember a time in elementary or middle school when someone was passing out invitations to a birthday party and everyone got invited. Except you. Remember feeling totally rejected? I don't think we've changed all that much. Maybe we're more mature and handle it better, but we still feel left out, don't we?
At a training for the leadership of the BYU-Idaho Activities Program I realized this (At the time I was applying it to activities at BYU-Idaho, but it's totally applicable in every day life.):
Even if I know without a doubt that someone can't come to an activity I plan, I'm still going to extend the invite. (Doesn't it make you feel good to know that someone thought of you, even if you can't make it?) And if there's any reasonable way I can invite more people, I'm going to. I'd rather have a packed apartment then for someone to feel left out. Of course there are limits, and I'm sure I've made people feel left out, but it's never intentional--promise!
This advice could especially be applied to friends of other faiths. A lot of times I'm hestitant to invite friends to my church's activities because I don't want to come off as pushy. When really, if a friend invited me to her church, I'd be touched at her thoughtfulness.
Just some food for thought.
No comments:
Post a Comment