Encouragement (Part 2)

ENCOURAGEMENT (Part 2)

"Words kill, words give life -they're either poison or fruit - you choose!" Proverbs 18:21

I wanted to give some follow-up thoughts on encouragement to challenge your thinking.

1. Encouragement doesn't cost anything! It is a free gift. Yes, you
can do things that cost something to encourage someone like buying them a gift. But it can be something as simple as a note you write in your own handwriting.

I have a file of notes that I have received over the years. When I am discouraged or feeling sorry for myself, I will pull out that file and read a couple of those notes. They refresh and revive my spirits. Most of those notes came on just the right days - out of the blue.

2. Sometimes it is the people most closest to you that need the
encouragement the most.

I never doubted my Mom and Dad's love, but they were not the greatest encouragers. They would tell others how proud they were of me and my accomplishments. But my Dad went to his grave having never told me how proud he was of me.

Sometimes it is the people closest to us who need to hear words of encouragement from us.

3. Encouragement can change the course of a person's life.

There are thousands of stories of people who were ready to throw in the towel who because of a timely word of encouragement, hung in there and soared in the place where God called them to serve. Your pastor needs continual encouragement. Sometimes we make the assumption that everyone else is doing it, so why should it. Guess what - it ain't happening.

Make encouragement a part of your daily routine. It's a great investment.

Great quote: There is such a thing as taking ourselves and the world too seriously, or at any rate too anxiously. Half of the secular unrest and dismal, profane sadness of modern society comes from the vain idea that every man is bound to be a critic of life, and to let no day pass without finding some fault with the general order of things, or projecting some plan for its general improvement. And the other half comes from the greedy notion that a man's life does consist, after all, in the abundance of things that he possesseth, and that it is, somehow or other, more respectable and pious to be always at work trying to make a larger living, than it is to lie on your back in the green pastures and beside the still waters, and thank God that you are alive.

Henry Van Dyke