A Word of Encouragement
I take the mail out of the mailbox and thumb through the letters, a couple of bills, an ad, and a card. I pick up the blue envelope. The neat and pretty cursive looks familiar, and I glance at the return address to confirm what I already know. Surprised, I can’t think why she would send me a card. I pull into the garage, kill my Jeep engine, and open the card while still sitting behind the wheel.
It is a thank you note. I never considered the flowers I had shared worthy of a response; they were simply a token of celebration and gratitude for a path traveled together. Like the author, the note is beautiful and poetic, and the warmth of her words fills me. I read, “It’s a song of gratitude for the privilege of the shared journey…the accompaniment as we “walk each other home.” She quoted Ram Dass in response to a quote I had used from Beau Taplin in an earlier conversation. “Home is not where you are from; it is where you belong.”
I read, “I am grateful for the shared path, the Holy in you that feeds and fosters the Holy in me…” It is a reminder of the reciprocity in our relationship, something I struggle to see. I know this is more than a thank-you note. It is a note of encouragement, and I am deeply grateful. She didn’t realize how desperately I needed encouragement, but God knew.
Encouragement:
Encouragement. According to vocabulary.com, “Within the word encouragement, we see the word, “courage,” which means the ability to face danger and deal with it.” While dictionary.com defines courage as “the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc.…” Vocabulary.com goes on to state, “To encourage, then, is to help develop that ability in someone, while the “ment” at the end makes that development into a noun, the act of giving courage or support to another. I feel encouragement holds the word ‘courage’ between its giving and embodiment, and I am reminded that we cannot give what we do not have.
As with all things, we develop courage through practice. We all face difficulty, danger, and pain at some point in our lives, and we develop the ability to overcome these things by walking through them. But few of us have a natural ability to do that alone. Sometimes, we need help facing our heartache, insecurity, and fear. We need encouragement.
I think this word is sometimes misused. Encouragement isn’t advice. To encourage is to help someone see their strengths and recognize their God-given abilities, so they will have the courage to face their fears and make difficult decisions, however big or small, that will grow them into the person they were created to become.
Kindred Spirits
Recently, I was invited to the home of a new friend and had the delightful opportunity to get to know her better. There, I discovered, in the words of Anne of Green Gables, “Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think.” (Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables). Among other things, we discovered that we both love poetry. Betsy has published two poetry books, Spirited Poems for Spirited People and Messages At Midnight, which unfortunately is no longer in print.
Before I left, she offered me a copy of her book, Messages At Midnight, and signed it. The story of how she wrote these poems was amazing, and I was delighted to own a copy. However, in a week full of seemingly urgent tasks, it was three days before I read the inscription she wrote. I was touched by her words as I read, “To Sheila, a fellow seeker – may you be amazed at your own beauty!” I was even more amazed when I opened the book to the page where she had randomly stuck a bookmark. She didn’t know I had again been wrestling with the question, “Do my words have any worth to offer to the world beyond my door?” But the book opened to a beautiful poem titled, “Worthy”. I read it slowly, savoring the words. The last lines read, “You are worthy, so spread your intoxicating creativity out in the world and inspire others to find theirs.”
Encourage One Another
The writer of Hebrews wrote, “But encourage one another every day, as long as it is still called “today” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” (Hebrews 3:13 NASB) And Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica, “We urge you, brothers and sisters, …encourage the fainthearted,….”; “Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, just as you also are doing.” (1 Thessalonians 5: 14; 5:11 NASB)
We don’t always know how our words will impact someone else, but when we see others as unique individuals created in the image of God, we can look for the goodness they bring to the world. Then, we can be a mirror to reflect that unique beauty back to them so they can see their value. We must remember that our words have worth and matter to the world; they have the power to build up or tear down, and we don’t want to wield them carelessly. When we have the courage within ourselves to do those things we feel God created us to do, we become an encouragement to others.
So, whether you boldly publish and share a book of poems you wrote as they were divinely given at midnight, pursue a doctorate despite becoming a mom before becoming an adult, or write about the process of transformation while living through a changing season of life, your courage might be the encouragement someone else needs to witness. My prayer for you today echoes words given to me, “May you be amazed at your own beauty…and courage as we walk each other home!”