Photo by Mabel Amber

If you read and follow this blog (I don’t), you know that April and I rented an apartment in Louisville earlier in the year. There are many reasons, and you would probably find out if you read all the blog posts starting in January. (I dare you! You’ll learn why and my readership will go way up.)

Anyway, I have lived in many apartments in my adult life, and I have always prided myself on getting my full security deposit back. The only way to do that is to leave the apartment better, cleaner than when you moved in. We no longer have the apartment in Louisville, and I just checked, and we got our entire security deposit back.

Thinking about how to leave things, I have learned over the years that no matter the circumstances, it is always best to leave people better, cleaner than when you moved into their life. I have had to take the exit ramp out of a few lives recently. I won’t list why. All of them, except one, ended well. That one didn’t because I was careless and didn’t ask for an invitation to speak into their life. The individual didn’t like hearing the truth, so the friendship ended sourly. I gave all my emotions, pain, and desire to get revenge to God.

There is great power in asking for an invitation to speak into someone’s life first before you do. This is one of the topics in my next book to be published, soon I hope, “Ask, Flip and Invite – The Power to Learn, Change, and Influence Your World.”

The one thing I had noticed when you leave someone better or cleaner than when you met them is this; they don’t realize you pulled away. They think you simply drifted away due to different interests, new interests, or for some other good reason. This should be our desire when it comes to leaving people. In other words, they should feel good when they think of you.

Every time you cross my mind, I break out in exclamations of thanks to God.
Phi. 1:3 (MSG)

Take the time and effort needed to leave it clean. You will be glad in your heart that you did.

Copyright © 2023 Mark Brady.