National Day of Encouragement

I did not know that this day existed - National Day of Encouragement.  Wow.  Can you imagine if everyone in the world focused on encouraging the people they all came in contact with today?  What a joy filled nation we would have.

How different a culture we would be if we focused on encouraging others.  And I'm not talking about throwing out empty, meaningless compliments.  I'm talking about the get-to-the-heart-and-emotions kind of encouragement.  I know for myself, I sometimes forget to focus on those things.  They might come to my mind, but in the busyness of the day, I forget to share those things with the very person that might be needing to hear your encouragement - right at that moment. 



I personally have had SO many people randomly encourage me and they have often had no clue how much it had impacted me.  They didn't know what I was struggling with right at that moment, but they said or did something that changed my moment - my day.  We so often go around wrapped up in our own little worlds and forget to look at others.  Really look at them.  Really hear them.  We get busy.  We get occupied.  But we forget those around us.  We forget to take time to look into their eyes and see their hearts.

On the other hand, we sometimes don't forget to speak to people, but what is said is far from encouraging.  It might be a "joke" thrown someone's way that was not really a joke, but more of a jab said with a laugh.  Joking, yet the truth was all too close.  Sarcasm is another aspect that we do in jest, but can completely break an already fragile heart.  We might think it was funny, but the person to whom you have just said it too may be struggling with the very thing you are making fun of.

And isn't it true that all too often we can see the negative in others rather than the positive?  We can see what wasn't done, or what was done poorly, rather than all the good that the person has done.  I know for myself, I struggle with this one - especially with my family.  Keith may have done everything right all week long, but when the garbage doesn't get taken to the curb in time for the truck to pick it up, that's all I can see.  (Don't worry, he got the garbage out this morning LONG before I was even up!  ☺)  For my kids too.  So often I see the one negative thing rather than the positive things that have been happening all day.  It is so easy to focus on the things we don't like, rather than taking that step back and seeing all the good that has been done.  My kids have even called me on it.  "I was just trying to do something good." Oh how that comment has cut to the quick.  All I saw was the mess when in fact, they were just trying to do something good. 

So today - on this National Day of Encouragement - let's start a trend of calling out the good, rather than the negative.  How can you encourage someone today?  Who can you tell something good to, rather than the negative that so easily comes instead?  Can we retrain ourselves to look for the good in others?  I believe we can.  In fact, I believe we have been called to do that!!!  Check out this verse in 1 Thessalonians 5:11:

"Therefore encourage one another and edify (strengthen and build up) one another, just as you are doing."

We are told to strengthen and build each other up.  How often we tear people down - especially those close to us - without even batting an eye.  Without even thinking what it would do to their very souls.  For my kids and husband, I know their lives are filled with enough difficulty that I don't need to be adding to that by tearing them down.  

So today - let's strive to encourage one another.  God has called us to it.  Let's search out that person(s) that we know are struggling and lift them up.  Let's encourage those around us.  Let's treat them the way that Jesus would treat them.  The way we would want to be treated in that exact situation.  Let's make this a true National Day of Encouragement.  And let's not stop there.  Let's become a group of encouragers by showing God's love to them. . . ALL OF THE TIME!!!!

 

September Blahs

Several days ago, I made a post about September being a season of new beginnings.

How easily I forget about those exciting new moments.

For most of our married life, for Keith and I, September has been a month of dread.  As the temperatures start getting lower, as the leaves start to turn color, emotions in our home start to take over.  The feelings of enjoying summer give way to the feels of panic.  With the sweet scent of fall leaves comes the panic and dread of remembering.

You see, September is the one month of the year that brings both Keith & I washes of emotions.  September 19, 1993 was the day that Keith was rendered an incomplete paraplegic.  It was the day that our lives would be changed forever.  Whenever we smell those distinct autumn smells, we are instantly transported back to that moment in time.  It also doesn't help that a year to the day after his initial accident, he ended up back in the hospital to have his appendix out - - - and TWO years to the exact day, he ended up back in the Health Sciences because we had been involved in an accident outside our church and the doctors here in Steinbach couldn't tell whether or not he had re-injured his neck or not.  So yes, for three years in a row, on the exact same Sunday, we made three different trips to the hospital and so September has some eery memories for us!

For me, September has brought a new flood of memories.  September 2012 was the year I spiraled downward into a sea of endless panic, anxiety and ultimately depression.  Coupled with what I know Keith is remembering, September has typically not been a great month for us.  It is amazing how smells, sounds and even movements can trigger all the emotions of that initial experience.  Still 21 years later, the sound of an ambulance often will send a wave of panic through my body.  Driving on a specific street in Steinbach and waiting at the stoplight, makes all those feelings of anxiety and panic bubble up in the pit of my stomach - even two years later.

So, September is a difficult month in many respects.  Some years we have had victory over those feelings and other years we have succumbed to the memories.  Even though time after time we give them to God, the reality is that we take them back.  It's hard to leave them there.  It's hard to consciously say NO!  I've given those negative thoughts to God and I'm going to let Him keep them.  I won't give in to them.  There have been times we've been able to focus on all that God has done through both of our situations.  There have been times when we've been able to praise God not despite our circumstances, but because of what we've been through.

This past week, we have both been acutely aware of it being September.

But we have been both been blessed with praying warriors who have taken up the baton of prayer for us.  And so it is blanketed in this prayer, that we are claiming Christ's victory over these negative thoughts.  We are choosing to think about the things that God has given through these dark times in the past.  How we have grown.  How God has promised to give us victory even in these areas.

I read a quote recently and I've posted it below:

Isn't that so often the truth?  We give something over to God, only to take it up ourselves the next time.  This month we have decided that rather than being dragged down into the ditch of depression, we are choosing to praise.  Instead of looking back at what could have been, we are being thankful for all that is.  We are going to choose to care for others, to bless others, rather than focusing on our own hurts and memories.

Pastor Rob, who was was with Keith when he had his accident and actually saved him from drowning, asked us in a Sunday School meeting on Sunday what verses we thought about when we thought about Philippians.  Little did he know that once again, he was saving us.  He caused me to be reminded of the following verse.

Remembering the past is okay, so long as we don't stay there.  Remembering is good if it causes us to look at the present and to see how God has brought us through the past to praise him in the present!

Today, I encourage you to look forward.  Join us in looking to how we can bless someone else's day.  Join us in blessing someone else today.  If you are struggling with someone, pray for them.  If you know someone is struggling, bless them with a gesture or a hug.  It's amazing how taking our eyes off of ourselves and doing things for other actually blesses ourselves and helps us focus on God.

Today I'm excited about September.  I'm excited to see how God can use me to bless others.  How God can use me to encourage others rather than tearing them down.  How God is going to get me to focus on Him instead of the negative.

Today - I will praise Him for each September that our lives have been changed - because God has brought us through to this day to bring Him honor, glory and praise.

On Sunday, our worship team lead us in one of my favorite hymns.  It is Well With My Soul.  They didn't know about "our September blues" and they didn't know how this song was a song that I sang over and over while Keith was in the hospital.  The people who I stayed with while Keith was in the hospital have often commented how they couldn't believe that through all the struggles we were going through, I could still play and sing that song.  I just want to share a version of it with you because hopefully, you can say along with me:

IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL!!!!