I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day on this beautiful Super Bowl Sunday! A little more than 1 1/2 hours to kick off...let's see if we can get this Happy Friday hammered out.
I was in Seattle all last week - talk about a city, a state, supporting a team!! Everywhere you look you see "12." It was so awesome, so beautiful, driving from Yakima to Seattle late on Thursday night. Driving across Interstate 90, fog and low hanging clouds, it is completely dark outside. Then all of the sudden, way up on the side of the mountain, beautifully illuminated...12. Now that has nothing to do with this Happy Friday however it was truly a beautiful sight and I just had to share it with ya'll. :) Oh, and by the way, I am a huge Patriots fan...something I only revealed twice all of last week! :)
O.K., back on point, something happened, I honestly don't recall what it was, early last week and it made me think about "encouragement." Many times throughout the week I thought about encouragement, our - all of us - need for encouragement, our opportunity to encourage others, etc. This, encouragement, is what I want to talk about today.
When I Google the word encouragement it says, "the action of giving someone support, confidence, or hope."
Let's break that down:
Action - Dictionary.com defines action as "something done or performed; act; deed."
We can think, feel or say whatever we want...it is the actions that we take that speak to the hearts of others. We have to go from thinking, feeling and saying to actually doing Friends. Without action we fail to encourage others. Let us be men & women of great action!
Giving - Dictionary.com defines giving as "to present voluntarily and without expecting compensation; bestow"
Love this definition! To voluntarily, for no reason other than your heart speaking to you, do something while expecting nothing in return...nothing! Feel the weight of that Friends, feel the weight!! Will you, will I, on our own accord pour into the lives of another without expecting anything in return?
Support - Dictionary.com defines support as "to sustain under trial or affliction; to maintain by supplying with things necessary to existence; to provide for"
There are really two different components here:
- To sustain under trial or affliction - Every one of us has been there and will most likely be there again. I bet anything you remember the person, the people, that were there for you, that helped you get through it. We ALL have seasons where we need someone we can lean against, when we are tired & weary, when we need someone to help us just a little bit. Will you, will I, be that person to someone?
- Maintain by supplying with things necessary to existence; to provide for - We always think about the big, grandeous things...how about the small, day to day, matters? To see someone that is not in a trial or affliction but is just chugging along, doing the very best they can each and every day...will we lend support to that person? Perhaps if we looked outside ourselves just a little bit and supported others in this manner we wouldn't have such the crisis' of trial & affliction. Just a thought.
Confidence - Dictionary.com defines confidence as "full trust, belief in the powers, trustworthiness, or reliability of a person or thing"
Have you ever looked someone in the eye and pure-heartedly said, "I believe in you"? If you have, you know the look that comes across their face...it is truly priceless. If you haven't, I would encourage you to look for opportunities to pure-heartedly tell someone...you won't regret it. And please don't forget how this whole thing started...by taking action. When possible act out the confidence you have in another...show them.
Hope - Dictionary.com defines hope as "the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best"
Without hope, what is left? It is pretty bleak. Sometimes we get beat down & worn down, we are tired & weary. Sometimes we are so deep in the thickness of life that we can't see the light at the end of the tunnel. A word of hope spoken into the heart & soul of another can not only change the trajectory of that persons life but can literally reverberate for generations to come. Yes Friends, hope is really that big of a deal.
I now want to share a few quotes about encouragement before wrapping this up:
"Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Will you, will I, be that person? Will we help someone see what they could become?
"Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be." - Stephen R. Covey
How do we treat people - as they are or as they could be?
"Encouragement requires empathy and seeing the world from your spouse's perspective. We must first learn what is important to our spouse. Only then can we give encouragement. With verbal encouragement, we are trying to communicate, "I know. I care. I am with you. How can I help?" We are trying to show that we believe in him and in his abilities. We are giving credit and praise." - Gary Chapman
Love this quote. The one thing I would say is we could take out the word "spouse" and put "son", "daughter", "friend", "coworker", "colleague", etc. Read it that way with whoever is on your heart...
"Encourage yourself, believe in yourself, and love yourself. Never doubt who you are." - Stephanie Lahart
So powerful, so true! Encourage yourself. You cannot give what you do not have. To encourage others you have to be encouraged. Be the best you that you can be Friend - and please believe in & love the amazing you that God created!
"...You can do something extraordinary, and something that a lot of people can't do. And if you have the opportunity to work on your gifts, it seems like a crime not to." - Morgan Matson
Yes, you...
Encouragement...we all want & need it. I want to challenge (yes, I typed encourage at first and then changed it! :) ) each of us to intentionally be encouragers this week. Please start in your own home and then work out to your areas of influence.
Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your families. I will always be willing to help you any way I can.
Have a great day, enjoy the Patriots win and cherish your precious families!
Kev
No comments:
Post a Comment