Many people think of encouragement like they think of attraction, either you feel it or you don’t. But encouragement isn’t an emotion, it’s a discipline that you decide to take up, like exercise or reading.
That’s good news, because if it were just an emotion that hit you on one day and was gone the next, you couldn’t make a decision to encourage and lift others up, but you can.
Encouragement:
1. Can be practiced. Make a point to lighten the load of others, to point out something great and positive in everyone.
2. Can be scheduled. Decide to encourage the first person you meet each day. Make a point to schedule calls, notes and the like to those you know need encouragement.
3. Is DAILY. Hebrews 3:13 says “exhort one another every day…”, and so it should be.
How do you think of encouragement? Is it something outside of yourself, that you wish others would do to you, but that you never pass onto others? Are you waiting for the mood to encourage to strike you like a flu bug? What are some ways you can make encouragement a part of your every day?
David Curry
