The Influencers in My Life

 The other morning I woke up with my mind busy thinking about influencers in my life. Today, the word influencer means something quite different than it did when I was growing up. An influencer is often someone with a large following on social media, someone whose opinions, recommendations, lifestyle, or ideas can influence what people think, buy, or do. For some, being an influencer has even become a title. But as I lay there that morning, I wasn't thinking about those kinds of influencers. I was thinking about the people who influenced me when I was growing up.

They didn't have thousands of followers, and they weren't seeking fame or popularity. They probably never thought of themselves as influencers at all. They were simply people who were part of my life and who cared enough about me to help me learn the things that really mattered. Through their words, but especially through their examples, they taught me how to be kind and thoughtful, how to work hard, how to love others, how to take care of my body, how to serve, and so much more. They supported the teachings of my parents, who were teaching me these principles at home, but these people reinforced those teachings by the way they lived. They wanted the best for me, and their examples helped shape the person I was becoming.

As I thought about these people, I felt so grateful. Their influence didn't end when I grew up. Their examples still live inside me today. I am, in part, who I am because of the people who took the time to love me, teach me, encourage me, correct me, and show me by their example what a good life could look like. They may never have known how much I was watching them or how deeply their examples would become a part of me. Yet here I am, many years later, still carrying the lessons they taught me.

The more I thought about them, the more I realized that we all have influencers in our lives, whether we call them that or not. Most of the people who have the greatest influence on us are probably not famous people. They are the people we know personally. They are parents, grandparents, teachers, neighbors, friends, church leaders, coaches, coworkers, and ordinary people who cross our paths. Sometimes we don't realize the influence someone has had on us until many years later, when we find ourselves doing something or believing something that was first taught to us by someone who cared enough to show us a better way.

And that made me think about the other side of influence. We are all influencers too. We may never have thousands of people following us, and our names may never be widely known, but someone is watching us. It may be a child or grandchild, a friend, a neighbor, someone at church, or simply someone whose life crosses ours for a short time. They may not remember everything we say, but they may remember how we treated them. They may remember whether we were kind, whether we helped when someone needed us, whether we worked hard, whether we kept our word, how we handled difficult circumstances, and whether the life we lived matched the principles we said we believed in.

The people who influenced me weren't trying to build a following. They were simply trying to live good lives. They were raising families, helping neighbors, serving others, working hard, and trying to do what was right. They probably never stopped to think about the number of people they were influencing. They were just living their lives, and I happened to be one of the people who was watching.

That makes me wonder about my own life. Who is watching me, and what am I teaching them by the way I live? Perhaps being an influencer isn't really about how many people know your name or how many people follow you. Perhaps some of the greatest influence happens quietly in the everyday moments of our lives. It happens in the way we speak to someone who is struggling, the way we treat our families, the way we respond when life doesn't go the way we hoped, the way we serve without needing recognition, and the way we choose to live the principles that are important to us.

The people who influenced me may never have known the full impact they had on my life, but their influence didn't stop with me. The good principles they helped plant in my heart have had the opportunity to be passed on to my children, my grandchildren, and others whose lives have touched mine. That is something I hadn't really thought about when I was a young girl watching those people live their lives. I simply knew that I loved them and that I admired something about the way they lived. Now I can see that their examples became part of who I am, and through me, some of what they taught me can continue to influence others.

Maybe that is one of the greatest kinds of influence there is. It isn't about being famous or being followed by thousands of people. It is about living in such a way that something good in us continues to live in someone else. Sometimes we may never know that we influenced them, just as the people who influenced me may never have known what they gave me. But perhaps that is what makes this kind of influence so beautiful. We don't have to seek it. We simply need to live our lives in a way that gives others something good to follow.