Encouragement

Have you ever noticed how our human nature makes us love to receive encouragement but resist giving it? It's really crazy. For me personally, I thrive on encouragement from others. It makes me do whatever I'm doing better and with more purpose. A lack of encouragement causes me to question the importance of my actions or even my very self. Yet, how often do I give encouragement to others? Fairly often I'll say to myself or a friend, "Wow. She did a great job!" or "I sure appreciate him!" But, I'll guess it's less than 10% of those times that I actually say or write those words to that person! And it's such a simple thing to do!

Proverbs 3:27 says "Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, When it is in your power to do it." (NASB). This is usually used in reference to money or physical things, but I think it could easily be applied to any good thing. (The Hebrew word for "good" here is "towb" and can mean "welfare", "benefit", or "good things".) I thought of this verse with regard to encouragement because I truly think that I am withholding good from someone when I don't give encouragement. And when I imagine someone who withholds good things (love, kind words, gifts, kind deeds, a listening ear, mercy...) when it is in their power to give those things, I think of a cold, lonely, emotionally dried-up person--certainly someone I don't want to be.

So, what is it that makes me so resistant to encouraging someone? I'm not entirely sure, but I think what stops me the most is the perception that, by giving away encouragement, I am somehow losing something--that I will be less encouraged or happy. Of course this is nonsense when I write out the complete thought, but nonsense or not, it influences me! I cannot think of any good reason to withhold encouragement. And when I think of how much it means to me for someone to speak a kind word to me, I want to do the same for everyone else. So I'll live now with this freshly fueled fire and seek out ways to encourage. I just hope that when this fire begins to die out, as all fires tend to do, that someone's encouragement to me will help build it back up!