Encouragement

Sometimes I think that I was born a little bit needy. At this stage of life, I really do feel confident in who I am as a person and desire most for the Lord to be pleased with me. I have had a lot of practice with doing what I knew He wanted me to do when the rest of the world thought I was crazy. I have also learned that the journey with Him is the one I want to be on whether or not it includes fellow travelers walking the exact same path with me. This is one reason that I feel God called my parents to raise me the way they did. I was given constant support and approval for growing closer to God and learning about Him above all other achievements. I was encouraged to be an individual who answered to God and not to what was normal or easy to do. I truly believe that had I been in a different family or different circumstances, I would be a completely different person. I would have become whatever brought me the most approval. God, through His wisdom and my parents' obedience, gave me the perfect setting to grow out of my too-deep need for the approval of others and learn that His opinion is what truly counts. This has given me a courage I would have never thought I was capable of possessing. Now I can easily make unpopular decisions for me or my family as long as I know it is where He is leading me! I look forward with eager expectation to His results for those decisions! I have never ceased to be amazed at the far-reaching effects these decisions have had on my life so far! His ways are truly so far above mine!!!

That being said, I LOVE a good piece of encouragement from someone else, as I'm sure we all do! I was thinking about that this weekend because I had found myself at a place where I needed a pick-me-up. Nothing terrible or difficult was going on, just a lot of work and time and wondering if it was worth it. Star Time has taken a large time commitment from me and the numbers have been dropping pretty low. I'm not a big fan of determining success in numbers, but instead feel that sometimes God does big work in small things. However, on top of the drop, I had been getting a lot of feedback on what could be done better with very little said about how hard we were working! Shannon and Mike are pouring so much into their ministry to families, and we just want to bless those who are wanting to spend this time attending this service with their kids! Anyway, just as I was feeling all of this, Saturday night several small things were said that made such a big difference for me! The people who said them probably thought very little of it but it put a little boost in my tank to keep us going in this work! What sweet timing when I needed it most! This made me wonder how often I think something about others like how wonderful they are, how well they do something, how pretty they look, how much I enjoy spending time with them, but keep those thoughts to myself. All those nice thoughts aren't doing anyone any good sitting in my head! So, I've determined to say all of those things when I think them. I am trying to do a better job of expressing those things to others in order to encourage them. John and I spend time with a couple weekly who we feel does the most tremendous job of this exact thing. They are very honest with their praise and make others feel wonderful with what they say. Dwight is John's favorite golfing buddy because he's like having a personal cheerleader in your cart who laughs at all your jokes, and Tara is always sure to notice if you've worked on something or look good or even if your house smells nice! I love those little things! So John and I have been challenged to be more like Dwight and Tara in this area and we are working on it. So, to the Goodwins, thanks for showing us how it's done! I want God to be able to use me to encourage others and I don't think I can do that very well unless I take the time to open my mouth or pick up my pen and let you know!