"How Are You?"

"Hi, How are you today?"

"Good, how are you?"

I hear this question on a regular basis, sometimes multiple times a day. I hear it from my friend over the phone, the cashier at the groery store (sometimes), my church family, my pastors, my Sister when she comes over to hang out, my hubby.

I've also asked that question so many times that now it comes out of my mouth without thinking. How many times do I (or we) say those lines, but I don't really mean them. I'm just saying what I've always said because it's polite, or I don't feel like telling the other person how I actually am, or I don't think they really want to know.

How would my day (or yours) be different if I actually told you how I was when you asked? How would my day be different if I asked, "Hey, how are you today?" in a way that actually sounded like I wanted to know. You might actually see my faults. I may lose the mask of "woohoo everything is grand". I may find out what you most struggle with. I may forget about myself for a while and learn something new about you. We could know how to encourage, exhort, and pray for each other.

I'm not saying the answer to "how are you" always has to be a gloomy one. It just needs to be an honest one. Sometimes the answer will be a happy answer, an opportunity to praise God for how I see Him working in my life. Usually, if I think before I respond to that question, the answer is a mixture of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

So, in the future, by God's grace, I hope to answer this question more honestly. And I hope to ask it with the intention to put other before myself and actually care about the answer I get.

How am I?
Struggling, Selfish, Sleepy, and Thankful.....(anybody know a synonym for thankful that starts with an S?)

-JRae

P.S. I see the word 'struggling' as a good thing. But that's a story for another time.