Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 75 of our Trek, and yesterday our wisdom nugget was why “Life is not a Spectator Sport.” Today we want to consume what the true meaning is when we want to encourage another person.
We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Today’s work pace moderated somewhat, so it was good to be focused on some of the projects that got pushed back some. Paula was able to take Kip to his first day of orientation at his new pre-school this morning, and we were able to spend the remainder of today with him before returning him home this evening. I also had a chance to visit a friend in need this afternoon and hopefully encourage him during this difficult time. His good spirits over these many months certainly have been an encouragement to me.
As we are heading out on our Trek today, it gives me pause to reflect on the word encourage or encouragement. What does it really mean to be able to encourage another person or have someone encourage us?
Certainly, on our life’s trek, there are plenty of obstacles and rough terrain that we encounter each day where it is easy to get discouraged. That is how life rolls some days or even in some extended seasons. While I am generally a positive person and do not become easily discouraged for long periods of time, we are all susceptible to experiencing times where we do not feel, nor do we really desire to be, positive. I think that we can all relate to this.
One of the most common complaints we hear from many people today, especially in the workplace, but too many times also in our homes and places of worship, is that they never receive any feedback, except negative feedback. All of us like to be encouraged, but I tend not to need a constant dose of it myself. So, I was not always as free to give it as I should have been.
I know early on in my life as an entrepreneur and business owner, I made the same mistake with my team members. Paula had to remind me several times that encouragement does not come through sarcasm. Unfortunately, at times, this also carried over into my interaction with our kids. I did learn through the years to replace sarcasm with encouragement, but it took a while to make that transition. The good news is that any of us can learn to cultivate the ministry of encouragement in our lives.
