Sep 24, 2018
May God encourage your
hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word. 2Thess 2:17
True encouragement is
not making people feel good, it's making them feel strong enough to do the
right thing.
The culture today pushes for encouragement in every
activity. Parents only want teachers to
encourage the students (not discipline them).
Athletic leagues give every team
and player trophies, even if they never won a game all season. Cameras are quick to pick up a negative rant
or a harsh reaction for the evening news.
Moral behavior is no longer expected, as people just want everyone to support
their right to choose.
The problem isn’t the sentiment of encouragement. The problem is the definition of it.
In the middle of the word encouragement is the word courage! The idea of encouragement is not to make us
feel better, but to make us feel stronger.
You are an encouragement to people when you give them the strength to do
better, to choose wisely, to act righteously.
There is no encouragement by promoting sin or selfishness – anybody can
do those without help.
I would argue that giving all teams trophies is not
encouraging at all. It devalues the
purpose of the trophy and creates disinterest in trying to improve. Encouragement would better serve us by
rewarding the improvements and honoring faithfulness.
There is little encouragement for the student when parents
rip the teachers or teachers pull a power play over students. What is encouraging is when teachers and
parents work together to create positive reinforcement of the objectives and
goals a student is capable of achieving.
If the cameras were as quick to show the apologies and the
reconciliations over rants and reactions, we might discover more encouragement
for people to humble themselves or seek forgiveness.
The point is, we need to go back to the purpose of
encouragement, and use our words and actions to help people be courageous. That means doing the right thing, speaking
truth, giving people courage through our examples, and caring about their
improvement as much as we care about their feelings.
Maybe the best encouragement comes from Jesus Himself. He taught in the Sermon on the Mount what God expects of us, and challenges people
to live a holy life. Be Perfect therefore, for your heavenly
father is perfect. That’s not
‘feel-good’ words, it’s powerful encouragement.
Let’s choose to give people a word of TRUE
encouragement today!
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