The Encouragement Project- Introduction

Encouragement: What does it mean to you? An uplifting phone call from a friend? A pat on the back from your spouse? A card from your parents?

I have been thinking about this topic lately. I really want to be encouraging to others- yet I often feel I am failing miserably in this area. When I have taken spiritual gift assessments, encouragement is always the top one in my results.

But I feel like after years of just “going on fumes”-having a child who was born sick, having another baby 19 months later, raising my little family, moving, helping plant our church, having two more children, a few personal hurts, and just LIFE have kept me from using my gift.

And you know what? When I am using my gift, I feel so much closer to the Lord! It takes the focus off things in my life that I feel to be negative.

And on the flip side, when I am not using my gift, I feel awful. I become more self-centered. Things just generally don’t go well.

Hence was born the encouragement project- a series on different ways that we can encourage different people in our lives. This series is to challenge me, as well as you, my lovely readers! 

Starting next Monday, for the next several weeks, I’ll be sharing about a group of people in our lives we can encourage- whether it be our children, our spouses (or future spouses!), or the lady who’s always your cashier at the grocery store! Be sure you’re signed up for e-mail updates so you can receive each week’s installment.

Happy Monday!

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(this series originally began on my blog Aug 23, 2011)