Just a pat on the back.

There was an old saying "If you want to get a chip off someones shoulder, give them a pat on the back". Over the last few days I've been really thinking about my lack of giving encouragement. It seems like it's really easy to make a negative comment to someone, but hard to give them a positive one. Over the last few days I've been sitting back and listening to people speak, and I can honestly say I didn't hear many encouraging conversations. We think it's funny to cut on what someone is wearing, or how they talk, walk, smile, sing, run, hair style, and whatever else comes to mind. Not thinking that we may hurt their feelings, just hoping that someone thought it was funny too. This is happening between kids and adults, not just one or the other. No wonder why there are so many unhappy people in the world, they have nothing to look forward to because someone is always cutting them down. What if we tried to change the way we talk. What if we tried to encourage two people a day, or maybe five. Do you think we would see a difference in people? Ephesians 4:29 says No rotten talk should come from your mouth, but only what is good for the building up of someone in need, in order to give grace to those who hear.
Everyday we should be in the business of encouraging someone. Building them up so they can take on the world. I think back to Moses, God told Moses that he wasn't going to enter the promise land. The land that he had been thinking and dreaming about for many years. He wasn't going. I'm sure Moses didn't feel so good about that. Then God said to Moses, Joshua who is with you will enter it. So you need to encourage him, for he will be leading Israel to inherit it. That's crazy, Moses was just told he wasn't going, but he needed to encourage Joshua. Now that would be hard. The bottom line is that we need to encourage people, throw away the rotten talk and think about what we can say that would knock that chip off someones shoulder. So try it, try and encourage two to five people today!