Have you ever been to the beach or water park? You know there is always an area that you will get wet once the natural or artificial wave splashes. As long as you stay in that area, you are bound to get wet. Well that area is called the splash zone. We all have splash zones in our lives. These are the areas that if others in our lives are in can be affected by our actions, attitudes, ideas, thoughts, decisions, and leadership. Who are the people in your splash zone? They can be yours spouse, children, close friends, co-workers, or church members? Now the question is, with what are the people in your splash zone being soaked? Hmmm, think about that for a moment. Are they being soaked with negativity, rudeness, doubt, fear, or insecurity? Or are they being soaked with faith, encouragement, or empowerment, peace, or joy? The things that we do can greatly affect the people in our splash zones. Sometimes we live our lives and not realize the impact we make on others, especially those in our splash zones. By the way, what good is it that we try to positively affect people in the world if we are negatively affect the people in our splash zones? Sometimes we try to encourage those outside of our splash zones because we can unconsciously take for granted the people in our splash zones. We interact with them so much that we just expect for them to just overlook all the negativity. As I fore mentioned there are many things we can use to soak those in our splash zones. However today, I want to take a closer look at one way in particular that we don’t always realize how it can affect those in our splash zones.

We all know that those in our splash zones do not always make us happy or encouraged. Truth be told, they can get on our last nerve. The people closest to us have the ability to hurt us the most. The question is how do you handle it? Do you try to pay them back for what they do? Do you pray about it? Do you go talk about it with a friend? Well, we all should know that you definitely don’t try to punish them. Sometimes the thing that we run to the most is to talk about it with someone else. See the thing is our natural reaction tends to be to always talk about the negative someone does instead of the good they may do. Our first action should be to pray about it. I am not saying talking about it with someone is the wrong thing to do, but you have to be careful with whom you choose to converse. Let me explain why. For example, let’s say your spouse did something to make you upset. Every time your spouse ruffles your feathers you call a friend or someone to vent about what he or she has done. You don’t run to tell when they do something great or to praise them. So, the only thing they hear is the negative that your spouse has done. This creates a negative image of your spouse. You love your spouse, so when they apologize you forgive them. That friend that you chose to share that information with doesn’t know that and they begin to only see the negative pictures you have painted for them. Then you get upset when you talk to them and they remind you of all the negative. Sometimes you have already move from that place of anger, and that friend is still stuck there. However, there is no one to blame except yourself. You have to know whether that individual is able to handle hearing what you choose to share. If not, you just decided to leave that spouse unprotected. You have tainted there image in the eyes of others. This pertains to anyone in our splash zone. You have to learn to GUARD those in your splash zones. It may never be our intention to taint there image or damage their characters in the eyes of others. Yet, it is done when we only choose to share all the bad things these people do and never focus on what they have done right.

I challenge you today to begin to be more mindful with how we handle those in our splash zones. Are we choosing to soak them with negativity by tainting their image? Or do you choose to guard those in your splash zone by soaking them in love and praise? Guard your splash zone!!