Four kinds of people

According to Pastor Rick Warren, there are four types of people in your life; those who add, multiply, subtract or divide. I bet as you read that, you saw those people begin to pop into your mind wearing the proper mathematical symbols on their t-shirts! When you break people into those kinds of categories, it’s pretty easy to identify who is who, isn’t it?

What kind of person are you though? It’s somewhat easy to identify which categories the people in our lives fall into, but we often neglect to determine what category we most often fall into ourselves.

If your family was to pick one of those words to describe you, which one would best characterize you? Do you add to the joy and good of your family? Does your attitude and spirit infect your loved ones so it is increased and multiplied among them?

Women are especially influential in a family.

You’ve read the refrigerator magnet, “If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy!” That’s truer than we women would like to admit. Who we are, what we say, the attitude we emit is contagious. So, it is imperative we pay attention to adding to the spirit of our family and multiplying our good qualities among those we love.

But, it is sadly true that we have the potential to subtract from the mood of our environment. Do you subtract? Does your attitude of selfishness take away from the general positive potential of your family and friends? Do you drain your home environment of its levity and grace by your critical or demanding spirit? When we subtract, we reduce the joy, potential and grace God intended for us to walk in.

Even more devastating is a woman who divides.

It can happen between a husband and wife or children and parents. It can happen between friends or groups of believers in a church. Do you divide? Does your attitude, comments or spirit bring people together or do you, by your very nature, demand people take sides? Do you promote unity within family and friends by your gracious spirit and forgiving heart? Or, do you yank apart the unity of the whole by focusing on tiny differences and old hurts?

Pastor Warren suggests we value and invest in the people who add to our lives and cultivate relationships with those who are multipliers. And well, we should. But, since we all possess the potential to be dividers and subtracters, might we cultivate the adder and multiplier within? If we focus on always adding and multiplying, then it will be impossible to subtract and divide!

Philippians 2:1-3: Make my joy complete…being of one mind.

Question: What can you do today to go from being a woman who subtracts or divides to becoming a woman who adds and multiplies?