Being a positive influence in your community is a great thing to read about and discuss, but when it comes to actually living out being an influence, it can seem like a bit of a daunting task. Where do you even start? Who should you be trying to influence? What if you don’t feel like you have anyone to influence?

We wanted to give you some inspiration to get started on your positive influence mission in your community with some tips for work, home, and church. What tips would you add?

How to be a positive influence at work

• Bring your officemate a surprise cup of coffee or their favorite breakfast treat with an encouraging note.
• Offer to take the new hire under your wing and mentor them on their new career with the company.
• Exercise respectful treatment of everyone around you, whether they are someone you’re managing or the CEO.
• Listen more than you talk. Ask questions and really get to know your colleagues.
• Pray for your co-workers, even if they never know you are.

How to be a positive influence at home

• Have a no-screen dinner with your loved ones, ensuring that everyone is seen and heard.
• Keep a gratitude journal and make it a point at the end of each day to add to it—a grateful heart will find it harder to be a negative heart. Share your entries with your family members.
• If you have children, make it a habit to have a one-on-one day with each of them every month, and make it a “no phone interruptions” day.
• Turn off the TV, and when you do watch a program, make sure it is something you would watch with Jesus sitting in the room with you.

How to be a positive influence at church

• Volunteer your home for a regular Bible study with other working women within your church.
• Bring dinner to those brand-new parents or take a single woman within your church community out for a coffee.
• Organize a volunteer group within your church to go out into the community for a hands-on project and impact lives with the love of Christ.
• Teach a children’s class, giving the parents a much-needed break and an opportunity to worship without interruptions.

“Your lives light up the world. Let others see your light from a distance, for how can you hide a city that stands on a hilltop? And who would light a lamp and then hide it in an obscure place? Instead, it’s placed where everyone in the house can benefit from its light. So don’t hide your light! Let it shine brightly before others, so that the commendable things you do will shine as light upon them, and then they will give their praise to your Father in heaven.”

matthew 5:14-16

Wherever you are and whomever you’re with, you are an influence. Live your life powered by the light of God and His word, and your community will be better because of you.