The Gift of Encouragement
Page Three
Encouragement helps us to become encouragers ourselves. Make no mistake about it. Encouragement is contagious. Some time ago, a young college student attended a youth activity. New to the group, he did not know that Friday night was “pizza night.” Not having enough money, he quietly said, “I think I’ll just pass tonight.” The perceptive youth pastor sensed his financial situation—after all, he had been a student himself—and said, “That’s OK, it’s on me tonight.” Hunger won over embarrassment and the student gratefully accepted the free pizza with the condition that he would pay back his pastor the next week. The pastor’s response surprised him. Turning to him face to face for added impact he said, “Please don’t pay me back with money. But if you wish to pay me, you can do it in a better way. Someday you’ll be in a situation where someone else has little money. Buy them dinner, tell them this story, and suggest they do the same.”
The student never forgot that story—in fact, he has told it many times. Is encouragement contagious? You bet it is. What tradition of encouragement might you start, even today?
Few In The Field
It may seem strange there are so few people in this world who encourage others. You would think that since encouragement is one of the most important things in life, many people would be busily administering it. But that’s not the case. It’s quite rare to find a person who regularly encourages others.
Stephanie, a young mother, said one day, “I never ever remember anyone encouraging me during the years I was growing up. You would have thought someone would have made some kind of encouraging remarks. But I guess they were all thinking about themselves. Fortunately, I married a wonderful guy who encourages me a lot every day. When we were first married, I couldn’t believe he really meant what he said. Encouragement and compliments were foreign to me. But, of course, now I don’t think I could live without it.”
In short, as you become an encourager yourself, you’ll discover that you are a “rare breed.” But that just makes your ministry of encouragement all the more significant. It’s such an unusual commodity.
 Like people for their strengths;
don’t dislike them for their weaknesses.
Someone has said that it takes seven positive comments to counteract one negative remark. Look around, you’ll note that people are starving for encouragement. Many receive little or no encouragement during a given week. Choose to be an encourager, and you will render a service that few perform, but millions desire. But can we learn to be an encourager if we have not been sufficiently encouraged ourselves? The answer is an emphatic “yes.” It will take some understanding and a lot of growth, but we all can do it.
Why Some People Do Not Encourage Others
All day long we go around rubbing off on each other. Some contacts produce positive results because the other person is full of encouragement. On the other hand, there are people with whom we rub shoulders but wish we hadn’t. They seldom have an encouraging word to offer—in fact, they may be negative, critical, competitive, or disinterested.
Why are there people NOT able to encourage others? There are a number of reasons. Let’s look at several:
■ They may not be aware of the importance of encouraging another person. They haven’t stopped to think what it would accomplish. They’re absorbed with themselves.
There is a wonderful instance of this relationship recorded in the book of Ruth, chapter two, verse four. Boaz, the employer, greeted his employees with, “The Lord be with you,” and the employees responded, “The Lord bless thee.” What a way to start the work day! Yet some employers neglect the importance of being an encourager of the people in their employ. The same is true of parents, pastors, and many others.
■ They may not have received much encouragement in their own childhood. It would seem strange to them. It just isn’t part of their way of life. These people may tend to notice flaws and weaknesses and point them out. But they don’t balance this with compliments and words of encouragement. I have a little maxim I like to follow:
Like people for their strengths; don’t dislike them for their weaknesses.
We should always be able to find something to encourage one another in.
■ They may have a poor self-image. He may think so little of himself that he just can’t reach out to others. He might be afraid of how his words of encouragement would be received. Who am I? he thinks, and if he were to answer his own question, the reply would in all likelihood be, I’m a nobody. And again, this attitude is usually related to his early experiences. A healthy self-concept had not been built and reinforced by parents and others who could have helped him develop positive feelings about himself. Now, as an adult, he has little encouragement to share.
■ They may have little or no joy of the Lord in their lives. They may be Christians, but for some reason they haven’t developed spiritually. They don’t personally enjoy the confidence that comes from a close walk with the Lord. They don’t let God encourage them from His Word and through communion with Him in prayer and through fellowship with other Christians. Such people do not usually look to God and expect Him to guide them. So they see few, if any, instances of God’s working in their own lives with which to encourage others.
Fortunately, people can change. With time and commitment, someone who has never been able to encourage others can become a great encourager.
 Continued on Page Four
|
