Encouragement is Oxygen for the Soul

“Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage you, and I will not forget you.” ~ William Arthur Ward

“Correction does much, but encouragement does more.”
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“You need to be aware of what others are doing; applaud their efforts, acknowledge their successes, and encourage them in their pursuits. When we all help one another, everybody wins.” ~ Jim Stovall

“Taking an interest in what others are doing is often a much more powerful form of encouragement than praise.” ~ Robert Martin

“Encouragement is oxygen for the soul.” ~ Jessie Irwin

“We live by encouragement and die without it – slowly, sadly, angrily.”
~ Celeste Holm


“You are being forwarded to voicemail box, ***** can’t take this call right now. Please enjoy the music…”

As the ukulele strums I find myself singing along with *****’s waiting music, “Somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly…” I am irritated to need to leave another message, but her music always makes me smile and it relieves the surface tension. I am running short on time to hear back from her before I have to make a decision without her. It’s not her fault, or mine, this communication log jam has simply developed because of our very busy schedules.

Busy is a four letter word.

I have been the queen of the answering machine lately, needing to leave messages everywhere, not just in my town. (Has it really been over 100 messages these past few days? Why am I even trying to keep a count?) The most effective way to use a message system is to leave a detailed enough message that can almost prevent someone from needing to call back. “This is what I need”, “I got your message and picked up the orange Gerbera daisies and returned the blue gardenias”, “This is where I’ll be…” “I have ### with me and will be here until 5:36.” Email and texting fill in the cracks enough that ensure I touched base, brought the right paperwork, got the right signature, etc.

Yet with all of this communication, it is telling to me how little I get to speak to a real person, in a real conversation.

I answer email while I am in Master’s Greek class, in between parsing 2nd and 3rd declension nouns, and take care of routine ministry requests (the Sunday worship bulletin for printing) with a few keystrokes and a Send command. I have been surrounded by people, more than usual, because of our increased holiday intake, crisis intervention and solution-creation, but it is their concerns and problems which occupy our time together.

Like Bilbo Baggins describes, “I feel…thin. Sort of stretched, like …butter scraped over too much bread.” (Tolkien, J.R.R. The Fellowship of the Ring)

Playing phone tag with others, them leaving a message telling me what they need, me answering back with answer/action description. All accounted for, but not a conversation. Effective – yes, but efficient? Well, decidedly not.

Last night (which included calling hours, hockey game, basketball practice) I found myself on the sidelines in a community gym and felt like the day had been very heavy. So much done, so much yet to do – and then, as if a breath of fresh air, a gift. One of N. basketball coaches also coaches baseball and talked with me for nearly 10 minutes about my children, most specifically about my sons. Not about schedules and games, but to compliment and inform me on how my boys were doing. He wanted to check about my oldest, who had a nightmare of a baseball season last year… and make sure he was doing okay. I hadn’t talked with him before; he was just aware of a level of injustice and wanted to bring some explanations (which were eye-opening) and some encouragement (which was needed). He didn’t have to say a thing, but his thoughtfulness and his generosity with his time meant so much. The day that felt so heavy was still 24 hours long with all of its same circumstances woven into it, but its weight felt so much lighter exclusively because of someone else’s encouragement.

No one ever has too much encouragement! Give encouragement to as many people around you as possible. Encouragement is like a cool drink of water to someone who is incredibly thirsty. You may not even realize how thirsty that person actually is. We are rarely in a situation where there isn’t someone we can encourage. Resist the tendency to criticize, instead build guidance and instruction into your speech layered with encouragement. People need encouragement desperately, for big and small things – none of us are impervious to the attacks of discouragement. To give authentic encouragement requires a small dedication to think about someone else, unselfishly – listening to their words (what is said and what is not said). Authentic encouragement is not seeking reciprocal admiration, but stopping and highlighting someone else’s choices, actions, lifting them up. Your encouragement to one person can be passed on to more people within their lives. Encouragement is a hopeful transaction of trust and faith. The witness of God’s love will be bigger and wider and more vibrant because of your effort to give encouragement to one person. Help make someone’s burden be light as feather, find a way to be an aggressive encourager today.

“When he arrived there and saw the wonderful things God was doing, he was filled with excitement and joy, and encouraged the believers to stay close to the Lord, whatever the cost. Barnabas was a kindly person, full of the Holy Spirit and strong in faith. As a result large numbers of people were added to the Lord.” Acts 11:23-24