Affirming words
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
This is a post I originally wrote on my other blog, Thearle Girl, back in March 2014. I have been thinking about encouragement and words (as I often do) so thought I'd share these thoughts with you here.
I’m a ‘words of affirmation’ kind of girl.
Words, the right words, for me, bring life. No words, do not bring life.
I have been trying to decide if to write this blog or not. Trying to decide if to put my heart, my content, my being, my creations, my words, out there. It’s a scary thing. People think things. People don’t always say things.
Rod and I have been thinking a lot about encouragement lately. Sometimes life sucks courage, rather than giving courage. It can be disheartening. Encouragement is in short supply. Not saying the encouraging thing can be as bad as saying a negative thing. Silence is deafening. One of the most hurtful weapons a person has, is not nasty words, but silence – that doesn’t speak up when it could speak up.* I feel this deeply; he’s learning this (for me and for others). We want to be encouragers of people – he doesn’t need it, I crave it. But we both realise the importance of it. And instead of him not giving it because he doesn’t need it in return, and me not giving it because no many others are handing it out, we’re learning more than ever that we need to take the first step and encourage. Maybe then someone will encourage us. But we don’t want to worry about that; we want to give life.
Life cannot be given solely through words. For all of us, we need the Word to bring life. When we aren’t encouraged, we need to know what the Word thinks and says about us. Then our encouragement for others will flow freely. And what we need will become less about us, and more about him.
Words bring life. So use your words (and your likes and your comments) to bring life.
* We watched a Hillsong TV sermon by Brian Houston called 'I Feel Better Now'. Some of these thoughts are from his thoughts.
