“Be somebody who treats everybody like a somebody.”

I guess I’m just an advocate of making everybody feel like they matter, like they have worth.
I think that the greatest thing we can do for someone is to invest in them. There have been so many times throughout my life that I longed so desperately for someone to take the time to truly invest in me and speak into my life, someone who was outside of my family and friends circle.

Over the course of the past year and a half there have been three of four people who have truly taken time to invest in me, simply as a human being. Not necessarily as a musician or a singer or a writer, but me, Nicole Arnold, the person. And I can tell you that those few, very limited conversations mean so much more to me than those people will probably ever know. Those few people have made a difference in my life, to an extent that they will probably never fully realize.

And what I’ve realized is this: people not only crave human interaction and acceptance, but they crave interaction from people who truly see worth in them when nobody else does.

People, at their core, desire to feel like they have worth.

And what I’ve found is that investing in people and treating people with kindness and respect can mean more to them than you will ever probably realize. You will not always be surrounded by the people who are social media famous, and wear the best clothes and have the funniest comments, but more than likely you will encounter someone on a daily basis who desperately needs to know that they matter.

Invest in people. Invest in that thirteen-year-old girl who everyone thinks is a lost cause. You never know who she could become. You never know the impact that you could make in her life, simply by taking her out to coffee, shopping or writing her a card. You have the power to alter the course of her life. Your words of encouragement and acts of kindness could motivate her to believe in herself and could propel her to jumpstart her own life.

Throughout my study of Jesus’ ministry, I’ve learned that He made everybody feel like a somebody. It didn’t matter who approached Him — He took the time to truly focus on their needs and then acted accordingly. He invested in people who were not the prime candidates of discipleship. He invested in the misfits, the nobodies and those who were considered second rate people.

For instance, the woman at the well. The woman at the well was an individual who really had no prospects. She didn’t have any friends. She was kind of the outcast. She had been married five times. Clearly she had an identity problem. She didn’t really fit into any sort of category or mold. Perhaps she was searching for worth in the midst of a broken marriage. Perhaps she spent every day wondering if someone would ever take the time to invest in her. She may have wondered if she was even worthy of true, deep, pure love. No one had ever taken the time to inquire about her situation. Perhaps instead, others would gossip and snicker and write her off as a lost cause. That’s when Jesus stepped into the picture and demonstrated what it means to truly invest in someone. He simply had a conversation with her that altered the entire course of her existence. Her life was transformed because one person took the time to invest in her soul.

Never underestimate the power of one conversation, because that small, seemingly meaningless conversation could change someone’s life.

Invest. Uplift. Repeat.