The healing benefits of encouragement outweigh criticism and can build self-confidence. Encouragement can help with self-confidence, effort, motivation, success, self-esteem and validation. Our spoken words can bring healing and encouragement. Lift someone by telling how you appreciate them, how good they look or how well they are doing.
When appropriate, share a Scripture that helped you in a hard time. Point being, we all have areas of our lives where we wish we could be better. Some of those areas are known and noticeable, but others are sitting just beneath the surface hidden and out of sight.
At the risk of over-exaggerating the point, the world will be better for it. We are all too special and unique to not be encouraged to do those things we're hesitant about for whatever reason. That said, if bettering the world is too far of a stretch, and not really something you can get behind, then consider these points below. Very few things are easy. Twists and turns, unforeseen hurdles, etc. Most everything we set out to do can, and most likely will be stymied by challenges big and small.
When grinding and digging into a challenge for prolonged periods of time, you start to see diminishing returns; you get more discouraged. With kids, you see it with back to school burnout , where they hit the ground running, but then hit a wall just as fast. Give your goals a fresh set of eyes, and open yourself up to advice and encouragement from others.
Think about what happens when you get discouraged. A loss of hope; a drained spirit. Unable to function in a rational way, maybe even staring off into space because we are overwhelmed? Duh I say to myself. If you are breathing you have experienced being overwhelmed in some capacity. But I realized that when discouragement is creeping in we have less :. It is like our soul is collectively tired.
It is!! Encouragement is giving support. Which is true but not exclusively. There is also the support a building requires for the walls and roof to stay up.
There is the support provided when you half carry someone with an injured leg or foot who cannot walk. A cast supports broken bones so they can heal. Support is being there for what is needed. Encouragement is instilling confidence. Which is putting courage in where it is lacking, where there is uncertainty and doubt. It is reminding someone of what is true and trustworthy.
Reminding them of where their trust and faith can be placed. The secure place for their emotional footing. Encouragement is feeding hope. Hope is the support system to our belief that we can expect a different and better outcome. Hopelessness is a byproduct of discouragement. Hope needs to be fed. Encouragement is empowering. It changes perception. It causes a person to see their abilities differently.
Encouragement is a form of love. It puts courage back where it has been lost due to fear. But there is a perfect love that throws that fear out and instills a boldness. It is what I call The Love that Heals.
Encouraging ourselves is a skill that is learned. We are not born with it. Children that grow up well loved are better at this than those lacking that emotional support. The greatest internal support is to know that we are loved and that that love does not hinge on anything we do.
That is The Love that Heals. That is the Love of The Pursuer. That is what gave David a guy in the bible the ability to encourage himself when his army was overwhelmed and threatened to kill him. He was so successful at this that he was able to get control of the angry mob and lead those same men to regain what the enemy had stolen from them. Did you get that? He turned that angry mob into an army that followed him. That is powerful. However, if we have found ourselves in the land of overwhelmed and lack the ability to encourage ourselves effectively, what then?
This is where our truster is tested. And we are also fulfilling a commandment by our Father. While God commands us to encourage others, sometimes there are times we need encouragement. Take David, for instance. He and his followers had returned to his camp and found that the Amalekites had burned the camp and taken everyone captive. Not only that, but his men were talking about stoning him. While David had every reason to be discouraged, he made the decision to encourage himself.
How did he do that? I imagine that he remembered all the times God had been faithful and the promises God had given him. And in doing that, David got everything back. I put special cards from friends in there. Encouragement is important, especially in this day and time. We can help. What if we looked at our lives and determined we were going to encourage at least one additional person every week…just to start with. And then, once we made that a habit, we encouraged another person, and then another.
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