what do you see?

Last weekend, I had a sleepover with two of my close girlfriends (yes, we're all in our 20's, but you're never too old for sleepovers, right?!).  We hung out at a neat coffee shop, ate cupcakes at  11:30 at night, stayed up late talking, and hiked a mountain the next day.  Fun stuff.

That night as we sat on the bed chatting, somehow we started talking about how well we know each other and the characteristics that we see in each other.  One of them grabbed some paper and Sharpies, and we spontaneously started writing down descriptive words and phrases to describe one another.  I was a little nervous about this at first, but it turned out to be both a fun and uplifting activity!  It was good to intentionally focus on my friends' personalities and qualities, and to call out the things I appreciate in them.  We laughed as we read the funny things our friends had written about us, and were encouraged by the positive, affirming ones.

It's really interesting to see yourself from someone else's perspective.
A few things made it onto BOTH of my friends' lists about me, including
Jesus
traveling
camp
country music
cowboy boots
deep thinker

And those common-denominator items describe me pretty well, I think :-)  It kinda makes me stop and consider, what do I WANT people to see in me?  Mostly, the first one listed above.... Jesus.  And love.  Those are the two primary things I want my friends, family, and acquaintances to think of when they interact with me.  That I loved them and somehow showed them Jesus.

So the next question is, how do I need to be living and interacting every day to make that a reality?