Interestingly enough, children are often the best teachers. Jesus encourages us to be more like children in our relationship with Him.
My son AJ is four years old. He is a pre-k student at Northern Hills Elementary. As I was picking him up yesterday, one of the assistant teachers said. All of this other kids really like AJ. She went on to say he makes new friends everyday with kids that are in kindergarten and first grade. (Remember, he is in pre-kindergarten.) I also noticed him hug several boys and girls as he was leaving his group to get in our mini-van.
AJ may be a little more social than other children. He is our number five child and has had a lot of opportunity to interact with his siblings. The truth is, children can teach us tons about developing new relationships. You can bring almost any child to a playground and in ten minutes they can and will introduce you to four new friends.
I was stuck on a elevator one time for about fifteen minutes with six other people. Even though we experienced something a bit scary and closter-phobic together, I didn’t learn any of their names or anything about them that day. For some reason, we adults are guarded and don’t build relationships as easy as children. I am sure there are a thousand psychological reasons for this. The main reason is fear. We are afraid of the unknown and new people are unknowns.
I heard a great quote yesterday. “Right in the middle of your fears is where your greatest future growth lies.”
I encourage you to become more childlike with your customers this year. Dive into hundreds of new friendships in 2010. Get to know them by spending time asking them questions about their world. You’ve heard it a thousand times… “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”
Business runs on relationships, relationships take time.
