Vine's on encouragement

Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words
A-1
Verb
Strong's Number: g4389
Greek: protrepo
Encourage, Encouragement:"to urge forward, persuade," is used in Act 18:27 in the Middle Voice, RV, "encouraged," indicating their particular interest in giving Apollos the "encouragement" mentioned; the AV, "exhorting," wrongly connects the verb.
A-2
Verb
Strong's Number: g3888
Greek: paramutheomai
Encourage, Encouragement:from para, "with," and muthos, "counsel, advice," is translated "encouraging" in 1Th 2:11, RV, and "encourage" in 1Th 5:14, RV, there signifying to stimulate to the discharge of the ordinary duties of life. In Jhn 11:19, 31, it means "to comfort." See COMFORT. Cp. the nouns paramuthia, 1Cr 14:3, and paramuthion, Phl 2:1, "comfort."
B-1
Noun
Strong's Number: g3874
Greek: paraklesis
Encourage, Encouragement:"a calling to one's aid" (para, "by the side," kaleo, "to call"), then, "an exhortation, encouragement," is translated "encouragement" in Hbr 6:18, RV, for AV, "consolation;" it is akin to parakaleo, "to beseeach or exhort, encourage, comfort," and parakletos, "a paraclete or advocate."

The Message, Eugene Peterson, 1 Corinthians 4:1ff.

 Don't imagine us leaders to be something we aren't. We are servants of Christ, not His masters. We are guides into God's most sublime secrets, not security guards posted to protect them. The requirements for a good guide are reliability and accurate knowledge. It matters very little to me what you think of me, even less where I rank in popular opinion. I don't even rank myself. Comparisons in these matters are pointless. I am not aware of anything that would disqualify me from being a good guide for you, but that doesn't mean much. The Master makes that judgement.

So don't get ahead of the Master and jump to conclusions with your judgements before all the evidence is in. When He comes, He will bring out in the open and place in evidence all kinds of things we never dreamed of--inner motives, purposes and prayers. Only then will any one of us get to hear the "Well done!" of God. 

Encouragement, Luke 1:39ff,

Gabriel appeared to Mary, indicating to her that she would be the mother of Israel’s Messiah. She would, by the miraculous action of the Holy Spirit, become pregnant, and her holy child would be called the “Son of God” (v. 35). He would be the Son of the Most High, who would be given the throne of His father David, from which He would rule (vv. 32-33). Mary’s response was an elegant expression of faith:

“Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word” (vv. 38)

The immediate faith and submission of Mary, a simple and very young peasant girl, to the will of God is contrasted with the hesitant request of Zachariah for a sign, a man who was a priest all his many years of life. Just as Mary’s response surpasses that of Zachariah, so the greatness of the miracle of the virgin birth of Messiah will exceed the miracle which produces a son for the elderly priest and his wife. And so, too, will the greatness of Messiah and His ministry surpass that of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Messiah.

When Gabriel announced the miraculous virgin birth of Messiah through Mary to this young peasant girl, he informed her of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, indicating that this was a sign of God’s ability to achieve the impossible. (vv.37-38) While no instruction was given here, the inference was clear: Elizabeth would be an encouragement to Mary, and a woman who would understand what God was doing in the virgin’s life. Thus Mary quickly prepared and left to visit her relative living in an unnamed village in the hill country of Judah (v. 39).

While Mary is clearly the principle character in this section, Elizabeth, her relative is also shown to be a remarkable women. We will begin by focusing on Elizabeth, as Luke does, and on her response to the arrival of Mary, the mother-to-be of Messiah. Several observations concerning Elizabeth’s response to the arrival of Mary will help us to grasp the magnificence of this woman, as I believe Luke intended us to do.

(1)     Elizabeth seems to praise Mary before Mary has had any opportunity to explain anything to her. Mary left almost immediately for the home of Elizabeth and Zacharias, and the journey may have taken some time. So far as Luke’s account informs us, Mary was only told that her elderly relative had conceived in her old age, which testified to the fact that nothing was impossible for God. (vv.36-37) We aren’t told that the angel informed Mary that the child which was to be born to Elizabeth was to be the forerunner of Messiah. Mary may have wondered how Elizabeth would respond to the news she had to share. She may even have wondered whether or not to tell of her visit by the angel Gabriel.

One can speculate as to what Mary may have been thinking along the way to Elizabeth’s home. She may have been rehearsing what she would say to Elizabeth when she first saw her. If Mary had any such reservations, how quickly they were dispelled! The very moment she entered the house and gave a customary greeting, Elizabeth blessed Mary as the mother of her Lord.

(2)     Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and her words were a divinely inspired utterance. Gabriel had informed Zacharias that the child would be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb. Now, it would appear that both mother and child were both filled with the Holy Spirit simultaneously. John “spoke” as it were by leaping in the womb (1:41), while Elizabeth seems almost to speak for John. One wonders how much that Elizabeth came directly from the Spirit of God, and how much originated from her own grasp of the Scriptures. We cannot say for certain, but we can affirm at this moment that all that she said was divinely inspired.

Not only did Elizabeth, in a sense, speak for John, she also spoke like John. We learn from the other gospel accounts that John was quick to acknowledge and proclaim the superiority of Christ and thus to accept his secondary role as “forerunner” to the Messiah. He even encouraged his disciples to leave him and to follow Christ. Elizabeth also readily acknowledged the superior blessing bestowed on Mary, and rejoiced in it. Like mother, like son. I believe that Elizabeth is a prototype of her son in this regard.

(3)     Elizabeth’s praise is not for her personal fulfillment and blessing in the bearing of a child, but in the blessing bestowed on her by the visit of Mary. Elizabeth’s proclamation does not focus on the blessing of the child which she will bear (John), but on the blessing of God in the arrival of Mary, who is to be the mother of the Messiah. In short, Mary is the focus, not Elizabeth. We will explore the basis for Elizabeth’s blessing of Mary later, but for now let us simply observe that the arrival of Mary is the occasion for Elizabeth’s praise, not the soon arrival of John.

(4)     Elizabeth’s words served primarily as an encouragement to Mary. How encouraging the greeting of Elizabeth must have been to Mary. Rather than having to try to explain to Elizabeth what the angel had said to her about the virgin birth of her son, Messiah, Mary learned that Elizabeth already knew. Thus, Elizabeth’s praise served as further confirmation of Gabriel’s words. There were now two witnesses. Mary was totally free to share the details of the angel’s revelation, without any hesitation. Elizabeth already knew, believed, and rejoiced in the truth of God, spoken through Gabriel.

(5)     Elizabeth praises God for much more than those things that Zachariah was told. When we look back at Luke’s report of what Zacharias was told by Gabriel, it was simply that the son God was giving him and his wife would be the forerunner of Messiah. There is no mention in this account of how Messiah will come to earth. How, then, did Elizabeth know that Jesus would be born of a virgin, and that the virgin was none other than her relative, Mary?

We must first very candidly admit that we are not told how Elizabeth learned what she affirmed by divine inspiration. It is my personal opinion, however, that she is no just a mere “mouthpiece” for the Holy Spirit, who has had no knowledge of what God was doing. I believe that Elizabeth knew from the Scriptures that Messiah would be both human and divine, and that He would be born of a virgin. With these things already known (albeit by the Holy Spirit’s illumination of the Scriptures), the Spirit of God informed Elizabeth, perhaps at that very moment, that Mary was the one through whom Messiah would be born.

(6)         Elizabeth’s praise suggests that she may have possessed a greater depth of spiritual and scriptural insight than her husband. As we compare Luke’s account which introduces Zacharias, this elderly (and godly) priest is not put in nearly as favorable light as is his wife, Elizabeth. That which she speaks far surpasses what we are told Gabriel said to Zacharias. I am thus inclined to view this as Luke’s way of informing us that some women may very well surpass men spiritually. Indeed, I believe that Luke is telling us that wives are not restricted to the level of spirituality of their mate. Elizabeth’s praise surpasses Zachariah’s petition for a sign. Elizabeth’s words far surpass the revelation which we are told Gabriel gave to Zacharias. Women may be limited so far as their public ministry is concerned, but not so far as their spirituality and intimacy with God is concerned. Elizabeth is a magnificent woman of God, in Luke’s opinion. Written by Bob Deffinbaugh 

Building a Culture of Encouragement

Everyone in the world no matter which culture or remote island you are from suffers from the lack of living in a culture of encouragement. We have all grown up in cultures where criticism is the rule, that is, where recognizing negative energy is the item mostly highly prized. A few people have escaped partially by living in families that encourage and maybe even a mildly encouraging community, but there is nowhere in the world today where you can find a culture that encourages as a way of life. We have all been traumatized and even beguiled by criticism, often thinking that it is a really important part of our lives. For instance, we know that people produce the best art when they are surrounded in an environment of support and lots of encouragement to experiment and grow without the interference of criticism. Yet as soon as a person puts on an art show or performs a play or gives a speech, hundreds of people are there criticizing everything about it. We are trained from the moment we enter the world to criticize.

Encouragement is actually almost the same process as criticism only the focus is positive instead of negative. When you criticize, you look for something wrong and then you express it in some way such as talking about it, writing about it, or doing some kind of artistic representation of the negative. When you encourage, you do the same except that you look for the positives and then you express them. The purpose of criticism is to get you to stop doing what you are doing, while the purpose of encouragement is to expand your activities. They both work. Criticism is the fastest way to get a person to stop doing what they love to do. Most people are extremely vulnerable to criticism, that is, they stop the productive things that they are doing when it is present.

Encouragement, on the other hand, has a much less immediate and continuous effect. Encouragement doesn’t work as fast to keep a person expanding and growing in activity in the way criticism gets a person to stop. Encouragement seems to be much less efficient in getting its work done. In other words you need a lot more encouragement to grow and change probably as much as five times more, than you need criticism to stop something. The reason for this phenomenon has a lot to do with survival. Negative feedback is much more aligned with surviving and so negative emotions are much more readily felt. We feel negative emotions much more easily than we do positive ones. Our first reaction when we feel negative, is to try to get the negative emotion from happening, that is, our first response naturally is to try to stop something. This is because we don’t realize that the negative emotions are just feedback messages that let us know that something inside needs to be changed. If you are in a position of authority or power such as a parent, the first natural tendency when you start worrying is to find a way to stop it. And the quickest way to get things to stop is to criticize someone else. It takes the responsibility of changing off of you and puts it on the other person and then you feel some temporary relief.

Self-criticism has exactly the same effect, and those of us who self criticize abundantly have a difficult time changing. Self-criticism often happens when you are focusing on some goal, and then you feel a negative emotion such as anxiety or fear that is connected with doing a new activity. You don’t know how to deal with the negative feelings which then cause inactivity or poor performance, so you end up putting yourself down for failing. There used to be a lot of literature that suggested people couldn’t change for this very reason. When you fail numerous times, you start giving yourself an incorrect label such as depressed, timid, or lazy, when really you are just running into a negative pattern of failure that has its roots in criticism and focus on negativity. The key in facing the future is to go into it with confidence. Confidence is gained by a clear memory of what was successful. It allows you to have the necessary resilience to gain feedback in the new activity without falling apart. You actually get excited about the feedback that helps you improve, whether it be positive or negative.

Encouragement depends on the ability to see a positive and then express it in such a way that it seems very important. It is not only important that you express the positive either to yourself or others, but also that you express it in a way that it is perceived as being significant. Encouragement normally requires repetition and an expression of enthusiasm about what has been seen. Verbally this is done through the use of tones in the voice. In writing it is done through the use of positive adjectives and adverbs, and in painting it is usually done with color. Criticism, on the other hand, doesn’t need as much repetition or tones. The words in themselves are usually enough to stop people. For encouragement to work it needs to be much more present than criticism. The best formula is to eliminate criticism completely.

Encouragement is an act of remembering. You see something that has already happened and then you express it to yourself or others in a positive way. If you want to help a person change, the most important thing is to see positives and express them especially if what you are mostly seeing are negative things. The positives that you are seeing are observations of what is already successful and when you acknowledge success, it fixes it in the mind of the doer, and makes the likelihood of repeated success much greater.

Encouragement allows the person to take what he is already doing well and then move to the next step. The next step is an integration of what a person has already done and then an additional new process. For instance, when a toddler is learning to walk, he first has to learn how to balance himself so that he can stand in one spot. He starts by learning how to sit in a balanced position and then eventually stand after hundreds of trials where he is building his leg strength and holding on to supports to keep the balance. Finally one day he can balance and when he balances, he just naturally does the next thing, he starts trying steps. And when he tries to take steps, he usually falls because he doesn’t have the balance integrated with the movement. But after hundreds of more trials, he learns how to walk. Success in walking is dependent on how well he did the previous stage, balancing, and then integrating that with movement forward. The previous stage is always an integral part of the current stage and any future stages. This is why historians are so important because they tell the story of what has lead to success.

Criticism tries to do the opposite. It identifies a weakness and then tries to not allow something negative to happen. For instance, one of the most common fears that people have is speaking in front of a group of people. Some people will do almost anything to not speak in front of others. As soon as child is in front of a group of people and expressing himself the parents usually start worrying about all the things that others are going to say. They forget the lesson of walking. Parents love when a child says their first words and almost everyone uses encouragement to help the child express more, but when the child starts to express real thoughts and real feelings in front of others, the parents begin to feel worried about what others might say, so they criticize the child and even punish him until he stops expressing himself in public. Children who are encouraged to express themselves and told how well they are speaking in front of others, or how well they are playing an instrument in front of others, naturally want to do more, and they learn through observation, and positive feedback what is effective and what is not. Children who are constantly criticized don’t learn the lessons of public expression because they stop themselves from making the necessary trials and experiments to do it. Eventually they may even start criticizing each other in a more vicious way than parents. You know criticism is present when children have a hard time staying with an activity for a long time. They have the practice of starting, getting excited for a short time, and then quitting. The criticism works.

Occasionally, a child will need to know where the limit is in expressing oneself. For instance, a child should know that he shouldn’t say negative things about other people and also he should refrain from using swear words. But it is a lesson difficult to teach a child in a culture where everyone is saying negative things about each other all the time and lots of people swear. If there is an abundance of encouragement, then it usually is not very difficult to set limits with children. However, children living in situations where criticism is the rule, resist limits fiercely. In a culture people are much more willing to follow just laws when they are living with encouragement than they are when criticism and injustice exist.

Since we have all grown up in cultures where being critical is the rule, the challenge of creating a culture of encouragement is immense. However, there is a very simple way to begin the process. It takes two steps. First, we can remember everyday some positive things that we did. It helps to keep a journal of those remembrances. We can analyze the successes and find out how we did what we did well so that we can continue doing them. Then to take the next step, we can ask ourselves what it is that we are feeling that is negative and what is it trying to communicate to us that we need to change. Everything in life is in a constant state of growth. The law of creation is that human beings must grow and develop. And the impetus for growth is relentless. Remembering allows you to know what you have already developed, and finding out about your negative feelings gives you a clue about the next step.

To help a person make a change the first step is to help them realize how fantastic they already are. You do this by analyzing positive characteristics and patterns and then emphasizing them with tones of enthusiasm. For instance, maybe a person can dribble a basketball very well. So you can ask him how it is that he learned how to dribble. He might tell you that first he watched some great player dribbling and then he went out and tried it. He just kept watching and kept trying and practicing and eventually he could do it to perfection. Now he has gotten so confident that he even tries new things. However, you also discover that he is having trouble learning how to write creatively and what you discover is that he is not doing what he already does well in basketball to learn how to write creatively. Instead of reading from a great writer and then copying him like he did in basketball, he is trying to make up some kind of original thought that no one else has done because someone mistakenly told him that creative people only do original things. He doesn’t know that creativity is mostly allowing yourself to be influenced by the positive things that are already there and then just adding something onto it. So when you encourage him, you are just helping him to do what he already does well and then try it with other things.

The false idea about creativity being originality comes from the fact that we live in a culture of criticism. People don’t want to remember positive contributions of past artists because when they try to remember, the memories that appear are all negative and critical. They are used to hearing how bad they are, so they shut off the memory completely and then lose confidence to do new things. Creativity is much more about copying what is already there and then adding. Even in the most creative modern artists of our time you can see how they have copied what went before them and then just added something slightly different. The first step is to bathe yourself in positive memories and expose yourself to the richness of positive memories. However, it is no easy task to lose the effects of negative experiences in the past.

My daughter, who is an art teacher, uses this technique to develop artistic talent. When people produce a piece of art and share with others, she has them pass around a piece of paper and ask the people present to write a supportive, validating comment about the art based on the language of virtues and recognizing beauty. The result is that the artists become extremely motivated to do more art and try more new things. In the current cultural climate of criticism most people get really criticized, then go into a period of depression and fear, and have to go through major recovery to get back to the art.

One of the major problems about creating a culture of encouragement in the world is that the current structure of power gains short-term material advantage by trying to keep others from changing. We all know that the world is moving from hierarchical, top-down, static structures of administration to ones that are based and dependent upon equality, individual initiative, and constant growth. A hierarchical structure is one where there is a recognized leader at the top and leadership moves down through a series of levels until you get to the bottom. In models that are based more on equality and individual initiative the leadership is seen more as a facilitation of a process of growth. People often feel that they have a voice in the organization and there is encouragement to try new things.

We know from research that when you start encouraging in a community by systematically remembering positive qualities and then helping people to take the next step, the amount of individual initiative, growth, and cooperation rise immediately. But as soon as you implement these kinds of changes you can also almost immediately be assured that you will encounter resistance and it is almost always from the ones who have a material advantage and are higher up on the hierarchical ladder. It could be in a family, in an organization, in a community, or in a nation. The resistance is at the top and it can effectively destroy encouragement in the short run. The top usually has financial power, more control over communication than others, and can create rules to prevent initiative. When the top feels threatened, it reacts by using it powers to stop the process of encouragement. One of its techniques is to find something wrong with someone that is partially true, and then exaggerate the negative thing until it seems like the normal something is really terrible. It takes the burden of change away from the leadership so that they can remain the same and avoid the change process.

There is really no solution to this type of discouraging practice in the short-term. They will start their campaigns of criticism and undermining and it will cause people to lose courage. However, on the really positive side, it is impossible to stop encouragement in the long run because the process is so powerful that it actually has an effect on changing the leadership itself. And furthermore, if leadership is actually done through encouragement, the growth rate is so fast and so positive that people in the group feel constantly in a state of awe and wonderment and then just naturally want to make more positive changes. The only problem we have now is being able to sustain a long-term campaign of positive encouragement in the face of the certain resistance we will face. My experience on this matter is that it is naive to think that there will be no resistance, and even more naive to think that the resistance is not going to be hurtful. However, if and when resistance comes, it is even more important to increase the amount of encouragement because the resistance is really a positive sign that the encouragement is having its positive effect.

If we were just to put into practice the one idea of seeing positive things and telling others what we see, the world would change right before our eyes. But the hurt we feel from criticism is often like a huge hole of inactivity into which we fall. It is difficult to climb out of the hole because the hurt is so real and its pain so intense. There is a remedy for criticism but it is very difficult to practice because our natural tendency, when we feel hurt, is to hurt back, to seek revenge. However, in the long run, the only lasting remedy is to forgive and forget the hurt and then increase the encouragement. I can’t think of anything harder for me to do than to forget and forgive the pain I feel from criticism because I have such a great desire to seek revenge by hurting back. And yet whenever I can manage to forget and forgive, always new doors of opportunity open and the world becomes a different place for me. The reason, I believe, it becomes like a new world is that the forgetting of the pain allows the memory to experience all of the positive emotions of success in the past, then the positive emotions associated with the actual experience allows for the feeling of confidence, and finally the confidence generates the courage to take the next step. The door opens and the experience is filled with wonder and joy.

Courage is the key quality for doing new things and having new growth, and positive remembering seems to be the main force that frees up courage to act. We know that a toddler learning how to walk is only basically relying on his positive psychomotor memory and the thrill of success to propel him forward. There is no interference from critical thinking because a baby doesn’t have a critical faculty. He succeeds by remembering how to balance, having confidence in it, and forgetting the pain of falling. Somehow, toddlers manage to not pay attention to the pain for very long. They seem to be driven inwardly by the success they already have and the desire to go forward. It is virtually impossible to stop a toddler from learning how to walk even in really adverse conditions unless you do something physically to stop him or he has a physical impairment. Every toddler succeeds. Adults succeed for the same reasons. They forget the pain and remember the success and are propelled forward by the desire for the goal. It is only when we don’t pay attention to the positive success in the past that we fail.

So the formula is simple. Remember the positive past and help others to remember it and they will naturally be propelled toward new goals and new adventures. by Christopher Adiparvar, January, 2005

Freedom

The freest I’ll ever be is when I’m living for an audience of One!!
A person who is happy is not at the mercy of one who is a grump.

Who you are...

You are not a failure. You are not a success. People experience success and they experience failure. Success and failure are events, not people. You are a child of God. You are crowned with His favor. And you are taught of the Lord through all the experiences of life.

Putting a lid on God's blessings

God is able to bless me only to the extent that I would like to bless the person I'd like least to bless. For those who say they can't hear from God, simply repeating that statement will prove we can indeed hear Him speak to our conscience. We often demand that God should bless us, when the issue is not His willingness, but our own spiritual posture. The outpouring of God's grace into my life can be resisted or rejected. Carrying offense, fostering a grudge, refusing to forgive, can all move me from the place where nothing hinders or opposes the generosity of God's blessings in my life. Forgiveness is essential. If I don't forgives, God can't forgive me. If I don't extend grace, I can't fully receive grace. A conscience void of offense toward God and man is the posture that maximizes my ability to receive the goodness of God.

Enduring encouragement

Choosing a posture of encouragement toward others is not taking the way of least resistence nor does it automatically mean a positive reception from those we are seeking to bless with affirmation. Encouragement is not only highlighting strengths and successes in the lives of others, but is also calling forth, "our utmost for His highest." An encourager is one who blesses by identifying what's right and supporting and evoking our best efforts to achieve the maximum excellence of which we are capable. Encouragement is the upward draw that refuses to let mediocrity limit our lives.

You can keep on, keeping on

"Do not grow weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not." Gal. 6:9 "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful." Heb. 10:23

God has His seasons, even as He has His reasons. We sow in one season, we reap in another. What is begun in faith, must be sustained in faith, before we enjoy the fulfillment of faith. Do not give up. What God has authored, He will complete. When in the, "in between time," of obedience, endure with a patient hope. God is not done with you. Others may have sabotaged what God has been up to in and through your life, but He has not changed His mind about you and His purposes for you. No man can stand against God. If God be for us, who can be against us? What can separate us from the love of God? Nothing! You are favored with the authority of God's word, and nothing can trump that.

Knowing God's will

Many times we find ourselves stuck in our Christian walk where the voice of God seems distant and unclear. We want to know and do the will of God, but it seems hard to get His direction and confirmation.I find that in my life when there is confusion, it is not because God is not speaking, but it is because I have moved myself to a place where it is hard to hear. When I began to see the opposition and difficulties so big that everything else is diminished, I began to be overwhelmed by the problems and unaware of God's resources. I Thes. 5:18, "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." Ps. 100:4, "Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, praise His name." God's word is God's will. His counsel is choose to place ourselves in a posture before Him where He can do what He has promised to do. The antidote to confusion about circumstances is to choose to thank Him for His faithfulness. The password into His presence, the way we dial into His will is by expressing gratitude and praise. It's not that God needs our affirmation, it's we need to choose to position ourselves where nothing hinders or resists the grace that God desires to pour out into our lives. Complaint and offense render me spiritually deaf. Thanksgiving and gratitude open the understanding of my heart to hear His voice and be tender to respond to His gentle nudges. There is an old song that says, "Count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done." When we are appreciative of God's many goodnesses, we are stirred once again with confidence toward Him. If God be for us, who can stand against us. Greater is He that is in us, than He that is in the world. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. He has promised never to leave us or forsake us. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. We can go through the valley of the shadow of death, because He is with us. He always leads us in triumph. The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. No weapon formed against me can prosper. He is supplying all my needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. He keeps me in perfect peace because my mind is filled with His faithfulness and I choose to trust Him. God's will for me is to choose to be in a posture before Him where nothing resists, quenches, or grieves the working of His Holy Spirit in my life. I move into that position of receiving His promises by saying thank you to Him that in the midst of whatever I am experiencing, He is always working redemtively. I am not grateful for the pain, but I am thankful for the gain.

Honor brings longevity

One of God's commands is to honor our parents and when we obey, we obtain the blessing of long life. To honor someone is to respect them, their experience, their investment in you, their counsel for your welfare. It doesn't necessarily mean we do everything they say. But it does mean we give serious consideration to their wisdom. What a blessing we miss when we ignore the example and help of those who treat us as their own. We can raise ourselves and our relationships with others to a new level of kindness and integrity when we give honor. When we honor someone we are investing in them. We are partnering with them. And we reap a reward of blessing, a reward of longevity when we do.

The power of affirmation

To hear someone say, "I love you," is to be embraced. To hear someone say, "I believe in you," is to be affirmed. Implict in affirmation is a gift of support. That's not to say everything you do is great, but it is to say that I am there for you all the time. Affirmation reminds us that not only are we not alone, but that we have partnership for living.

The ministry of encouragement

2nd Thess. 5:11 "Build one another up." It's a Kingdom of God imperative. It's what love does. It's what the church as the agent of the Kingdom does.