Who You Know

I grew up in a small community in Kentucky. I went to school nearby for elementary school (Grades 1-8). I learned a lot about relationships during my school years. My four years of high school were in the “county seat” which was also a small town. I didn’t grow up knowing that many people but my parents knew a lot of people. I was often known as the son of my parents, because they knew so many people.

Now that I’m older, my kids often say things to me like: “you know just about everyone around here”. I do know a lot of people because I actually like people. I’m a REALTOR and that is definitely a “people business” as well as a service industry in my view.

There can be great benefits to knowing people and having a relationship with them. For example, if I already know someone (in a good way) who’s applying for a job in our Real Estate firm, that person has a significantly better chance than other applicants.

Who you know is sometimes incredibly helpful to being treated with respect and honor by those who are in leadership over you. Check this out…

1 Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, ‘Go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the Lord has decreed a famine in the land that will last seven years.’ 2 The woman proceeded to do as the man of God said. She and her family went away and stayed in the land of the Philistines for seven years.

3 At the end of the seven years she came back from the land of the Philistines and went to appeal to the king for her house and land. 4 The king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and had said, ‘Tell me about all the great things Elisha has done.’ 5 Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to appeal to the king for her house and land.

Gehazi said, ‘This is the woman, my lord the king, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.’ 6 The king asked the woman about it, and she told him.

Then he assigned an official to her case and said to him, ‘Give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from the day she left the country until now.’ (2 Kings 8:1-6 NIV)

I believe it’s a good practice to treat everyone with respect and honor. They are important and have value. I’ve learned that you never know when you’re serving the needs of someone who is a relative or friend of someone you may know.

I love this little story because it showed the depth of the friendship this lady and her family had with Elisha. She trusted him; when he said to leave – she left. When she returned and her relationship with Elisha became known to the king – she was completely restored with her land and any income her land may have produced.

I believe relationships I have here on earth are the highest and best investment of my time on a daily basis. The Lord shows multiple examples of that as I journey through His Word.

Pressing On!

Dwayne