Encouragement comes in so many ways. Sometimes it is as simple as a smile to a stranger or from one, not the kind that gives you the creepies but the kind that tells you that you just received a blessing from someone else. It can come by the simple touch of someone's hand on your shoulder at a time of struggle or loss, or simply because they just felt you needed it. Encouragement while you, yourself are in the fire of struggle and pain, is EXTRAORDINARY encouragement because that is the kind that comes selflessly in someone else's pit of darkness or despair. Encouragement comes from a place deep within our hearts - the place where we want to know and give unconditional love and support to another, without question, without strings attached, sometimes in the quiet and sometimes like a sonic boom.
I love to encourage others because it makes me feel wonderful. I feel as though by lifting another up and reminding them of the special blessing and joy they are to me or to others, I am forced to take the focus off of me, my times of need, and instead redirect out and upward...with a heart of love, friendship, compassion, empathy and understanding. Often I use humor to encourage. Granted I may not always be funny, but hey at least I try and really, at the end of the day that is all any of us can do. But I learn how to encourage others because of how others encourage me. Or by watching them encourage others. And most often I learn how to encourage because every time I open the bible I am reminded of the Love, the Sacrifice, the Encouragement that is written on every page.
It is a gift we receive and a gift we share. And it means the most when it comes when we least expect it. I am encouraged daily just by waking up and seeing the world with fresh new eyes of Hope, Commitment, Love, Friendship, Support and Blessings that come flying at me, especially when I least expect it. And it is in those moments that I see GOD. And it is in that moment that Faith comes pouring out of me and spills over into someone else's cup, only to find out at some point down the road that in that single faithful moment I encouraged them...and they encouraged me. I have chosen the scripture from "The Message" as it feels particularly right in it's poetic translation of encouraging others.
Romans 15:1-6 (The Message)
Romans 15
1-2 Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, "How can I help?" 3-6That's exactly what Jesus did. He didn't make it easy for himself by avoiding people's troubles, but waded right in and helped out. "I took on the troubles of the troubled," is the way Scripture puts it. Even if it was written in Scripture long ago, you can be sure it's written for us. God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm, personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us, keeping us alert for whatever he will do next. May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. Then we'll be a choir—not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus!Blessings of Encouragement,
marebear
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