Being the Bearer of Encouragement

Not many gifts are better than encouragement,

For building up another in order to cope,

Such a gift is the giving of loving nourishment,

And what more is given than reason for hope?

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LIFE’S tough enough without enduring it without the encouragement we deserve; that which is born of the love of treating others as we, ourselves, would wish to be treated. Not many don’t need encouragement. Most people, when they are honest, about when they are down and out, will admit to being needy from time to time. There’s nothing wrong with admitting to the reality of neediness when it comes to being built up.

If we didn’t feel somewhat deconstructed by life we wouldn’t need to be built up. But it’s a fact that we do need, from time to time, to be built up, to be resurrected, to be restored.

We are deconstructed by life in very short shrift ways. It might only take seconds to reduce us down, whether it’s something someone says, feedback we receive, a result or report we get, or some other disappointment.

Given that any of us can feel totally disarmed and abjectly vulnerable in an exposing moment should be enough for us to understand how another person feels when they are disarmed, made vulnerable, and stand exposed. It should be enough for us to go to them and to offer some genuine comfort.

Encouragement is one of those gifts that are priceless in a moment of emotional need. Whether it’s a word of affirmation, a good deed of help done, a loving embrace, or anything else, is irrelevant. What is important is the perception of the person receiving their encouragement. Does it meet their mark?

If we know God we will love others as Jesus loves them. This is no easy standard to keep to, of course, and to think that some don’t take it seriously enough is enough reason to doubt whether God has really established anything in their hearts.

If we know God we will love. It’s as simple as that. If we know God nothing will hold us back from blessing others by encouragement, for love as a gift also reveals encouragement as a gift.

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Encouragement is a gift that’s priceless in a moment of emotional need. Love empowers us to encourage and when we encourage we empower others. Encouragement may be all we might need to genuinely succeed.

© 2014 S. J. Wickham.