"Be the change you want to see."

"If I can help somebody as I pass along, then my living shall not be in vain."

We can all be positive change agents in our own way wherever we are. In spite of the challenges life presents to us, we can turn the challenges around by God's grace and through His strength to something meaningful.

As a child you can be a positive agent if you respectfully address the inappropriate behaviour of your parents. While maintaining the position of respect you can get your point across and possibly save a life—your parent's or your own.

As a young pupil in school, you can be a change agent by standing up to a bully in school once and for all—so that the bullying would stop not just for yourself but for others who would have been bullied in the future.

As a friend, you can be a change agent by

letting your friend(s) know what they should stop doing or continue to do differently. Fear and timidity cannot be part of a change maker's mindset or vocabulary. When we act lovingly as we strive to bring positive change to our lives and the lives of the people in our world, the change must come.

As a mature individual, being a positive change agent means that we have to admit—again lovingly—where we have gone wrong and seek to overcome our weaknesses regardless of how many times we may have allowed our weaknesses to get the best of us. If we cannot be big enough, willing enough to work on changing ourselves—the change will only be a dream.

Positive change agents touch and influence lives wherever they go. Even if it is one life that would have been touched, one life is just as important as all the others in the world. Stand up for what you believe in, and stand up for those you believe in as well.

People who are at the forefront are not necessarily the only positive change agents in the world. My best friends are my positive change agents when they are there for me in my low moments. O, did you think that I did not have those? I do, but as I keep telling folks, thank God they are not as many or frequent as they were. And so the people in your life who pep you up when you are down are your positive change agents as well.

The person who really knows you and has your back, and is willing to defend you so that the (wrong) impression or opinion that others have of you is corrected, then that person is a positive change agent who could have chosen to add to the wrong impressions but did not.

Mentors, coaches, and teachers who take their career seriously and can be trusted, are change makers in their own right. These careers are not as easy and glamorous as they are sometimes made out to be, so we all need to be very grateful for all the positive change makers in the world.

Pay it forward to others in life, spreading kindness everywhere we go—are but a few things that we can do as positive change agents to make life better for others and to make the world a better place.

The two key words for today 'change agent' have been deliberately repeated for emphasis. When you have read this, and may not remember the other points made here, hopefully you will remember what is most important—to be a change agent because of the emphasis.

I was the feature speaker at the prize-giving function of my alma mater—St James Secondary – last Tuesday, and as the awards were being presented, one young man was going up to the stage to collect prize after prize. I leaned over to the vice-principal and whispered to her, "That young man walks with so much confidence; he looks like he can conquer the world."

After the function was over, this same young man came to where I was and politely asked to speak to me. He looked me in the eye and asked me if I did not remember him. And then it hit me that this was Joshua Bodie, a student from one of my self-esteem vacation camps. I cannot begin to tell you how proud I felt to see how great Joshua had done. Thank you, Joshua, for seeking me out; by doing so, you reminded me that my living is not in vain.

So let us walk on water, for weak faith panics; growing faith prays and seasoned faith walks on water in the midst of the storms.

Much love.