God’s been teaching me some things about encouragement over the last few weeks.

I am not naturally an encourager. I am a perfectionist and I lean more towards pointing out faults than praising others when they need it. I’m not making excuses. And that doesn’t mean I don’t want to be an encourager. It just means I have to make a stronger effort and be intentional about encouraging others.

Recently I went through a period of about two weeks when things were going, oh so wrong. People weren’t cooperating with “my plan.” My children’s behavior was beyond what I thought I could handle. I was overwhelmed, disappointed, frustrated and confused. I was ready to quit everything and run away.

That’s when God strategically put people in my life at that time to encourage me. Some of them knew of the struggles I was dealing with, most of them did not. I was blown away as person after person reached out to me with the sole intention of encouraging me. No strings attached. No ulterior motive. Just to simply and plainly yet powerfully encourage me.

I received a very sweet, random card in the mail with a simple message of, “I’m proud of you. I love you. I’m praying for you.” I got an email from someone full of encouraging words that resonated with my crazy emotions of the day. I received a voice mail one day while I was sitting on the playground bench at preschool. I had to keep myself from crying in front of all the other moms. It was from a friend that I don’t know very well but someone who has met my energetic and exhausting children. She wanted to let me and my husband know that we were doing a really great job with our kids and she could tell we were great parents (although we honestly fail every single day at the godly parenting thing!) She mentioned that our kids were growing up seeing our hearts for Jesus and learning how to serve others. That’s the part that got me. I had literally just had a conversation with my husband the day before about how I wanted to include out kids as much as possible when we serve because I want serving others to be a natural part of our lives and something that they will joyfully do as they get older.

Each of these people felt some kind of prompting from the Holy Spirit to reach out and encourage me. I believe this because of the timeliness and specificity of their messages to me. And they listened to that prompting. They followed through. Each of them took the time and energy required to say or send me an encouraging word.

I want to be more like these friends. I want to be sensitive to the times I need to reach out and send a word of encouragement. I have felt those times before and sometimes I’ve been obedient but other times, I was too busy or distracted to take the time to encourage someone. I also want this to be a way of life. I want to speak words of encouragement all the time. Life is hard and the Christian walk can be tough. We need each other’s encouragement and prayers. Lord, help me be an encouragement to others like so many have been to me.

And let us watch out for one another to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.  – Hebrews 10:24-25