Encouragement Benefits

What we do today right now, will have an accumulated effect on all our tomorrows. Alexandra Stoddard

Someone is enjoying shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
Warren Buffet

Researchers at the University of North Carolina reached the conclusion that people who appreciate small moments of happiness, laughter and joy tend to be happy people who are more likely to be resilient against adversity and more successful in jobs, relationships and health.

That reinforces my passion for encouragement. What you do to encourage yourself and others matters. Who wants to be around a depressed discouraged person? It brings you down and is really bad for your health. It does make a difference in your future and the future of your loved ones.

This study says that if happiness is something you want out of life, then savor the small moments and cultivate happy. Barbara Frederick, the lead author of the study, goes on to encourage your focus to be on the every day pleasures in your life and letting your positive emotions blossom. She says as we worry less about our future and focus on those kind things that people do for us or the beauty in nature, that helps us build resources so we rebound better from stress, ward off depression and continue to grow.

That works for me! I know I'm on the right path to an encouraging lifestyle.

My Encouragement

I had an extremely busy week, doing lots of encouraging with my two beautiful daughters. Andrea lives in Seattle and was home for a wedding and Kara lives in Indianapolis. By an amazing turn of events, Andrea got to work in Indy so I went down to spend the day with both of them. That does not happen often in my world!

We had a lovely day shopping and doing lots of catching up talking about all kinds of topics. I believe it was a special gift from God. Thanks and praise to Him!

It was not always easy to hear the comments they had to say about me. I tried to be vulnerable and stay open to some of their criticisms, because I want to always be learning and growing in my own life. I did tell them, several times, that I am not the same person I was when they were living in my house. Hopefully things have changed for all of us. The great news is that I discovered I not only love my daughters, I really like them! They are wonderful, caring individuals and I think their husbands are very lucky guys.

The most important lesson I learned is to talk less and pray more! It's not so much about me being right and them being wrong or the other way around, but about learning new ways of relating to each other. They live away from our home town and are actually doing a great job living life without me.

Here is a prayer from Ken Gire that hangs right above my desk and sustains me every single one of my empty nest days.

"My children are not the work of my hands. My hands are not the hands that hold them, not the hands that mold them, not the hands that work all things together in their lives for good. They are the work of God's hands. I am merely a tool in those hands, a tool He has used in some way, for a short time to shape them. Give me the strength to open my hands, not knowing what all You want me to give, knowing only that it is to Your hands I give it. Help me to love those hands more than I love whatever it is I hold in mine."

Your Purpose Encouragement

Just Think...
you're here
not by chance, but
by God's choosing.

His Hand formed you
and made you
the person you are.

He compares you
to no one else---
you are one of a kind.

You lack nothing that
His grace
can't give you.

He has allowed you
to be here at this time
in history to fulfill
His special purpose
for this generation.
Roy Lessin

Encouragement

When I woke up to the dark and saw the dreary rain, I struggled with some depression. I wondered what I could do to encourage myself today.

I'm reading through the New Testament with my church family this fall and as I read the assignment for today the words that Paul wrote to the Romans jumped out at me. I realized this was my answer for a day like this one.

Paul longed to see his brothers, the Romans, so that they could be "mutually encouraged by each other's faith." That's it, nothing more, nothing less.

Whose life will touch mine today that I can be encouraged by their faith? Likewise, who will I meet that I can encourage with my faith?

It's not about my circumstances, my relationships, my job, my finances, the weather...In fact it's not about me or my feelings at all! How freeing to realize that I don't have to be in charge of that department of life.

The focus is about my faith in God and how I can encourage that one person whose path will cross mine today.

I'm excited to see what God has in store for me. It is starting to look a lot brighter already!

MOMS-YOU CAN DO IT!

Listen to this story about a black mom named Jesse, who grew up in a family of eleven in the south, could not see a future where she was, so at eighteen, she caught a train to NY City, married a man who charmed the socks off her and had three small children. Then, when she realized he was charming other items of clothing off other women, Jesse, with no education or resources took her three small children, went back home to the south, and moved into the projects of Raleigh NC-this is a true story. She made a home for herself and her three children; one of her favorite things to do was waking up early, sitting on her porch drinking coffee and visiting with neighbors as they went off to work.

But then the sixties came and things changed drastically; drugs swept through the communities and neighborhoods became slums. Children wandered around hungry and alone, left to grow up by their own devices.

So Jesse began to get up early for a new reason. Morning and night, Jesse baked two dozen biscuits. Any child who was hungry was welcome at her table; sometimes she could even give them more. She became the neighborhood mom, a dependable stable adult in these kids’ hard lonely lives. Later in her life, she could have moved out, but she stayed because she felt the call of God right where she was, in the midst of poverty and great need. As the years went on, she rallied others to help with after-school programs and a police station in the area. Though in her eighties, she can still see the faces of the children whose lives she touched…

Listen moms, what you offer your kids in this season of life makes a difference. Your two dozen biscuits offered to your world makes a difference. If you let Him, God will take those ordinary moments and make them extraordinary.

My challenge to you is--as your focus becomes less of what you want and more of what you can give, there is meaning in whatever season of life you are in, whatever you do.

YOU CAN DO IT!

Give the Gift of Encouragement with Inspirational Bracelets

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These unique bracelets are made from hand carved water buffalo bone and hand carved beads. The cords used to tie the tiles together have an adjustable slip knot that provides correct sizing for most wrists so you don't have to worry about sizing.

How can you encourage others when you are not with them every day? Is someone you know fearful when taking that big test or trying out for the team? Or maybe lacks courage to stand up for herself in a difficult situation?

Maybe you long to hear these words-you can do it-when you face a difficult challenge. Remember the power of words of the Little Red Caboose saying 'I think I can, I think I can, I know I can,' as he chugged up the hill?

Now you can instill that same inspiring spirit in your loved ones and even yourself with the new GO FOR IT and YOU CAN DO IT bracelet. These words will give friends and family courage, comfort and confidence to be and do their best as they see these powerful phrases on their wrist.

Sometimes it is your presence and sometimes it is a present that makes the difference in another's life.

You can impact others with the right words even if you are not with them everyday. When they need the courage to face that test or tryout for the team, they will see this encouraging message and know someone is rooting for them to GO FOR IT!

Help them find their own power when they read this encouraging message on their bracelet, GO FOR IT or YOU CAN DO IT!

The battle for courage begins and is won by believing. These powerful words will help them believe in themselves to find their own potential and give them strength to take that extra step.

Full Circle Encouragement

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Guardian Village Handicrafts provides women and impoverished families with fair trade business opportunities. They supply vocational training in handmade jewelry, crafted Lokta paper products and other accessories. The sale of these handicrafts helps to fund the Guardian Children's Home where care and quality education are provided for children rescued from slavery and other abusive environments. Your purchase of these products promotes holistic community environments.

Special Introductory offer--Purchase the How to Encourage ebook and How to Encourage Children ebook for only $15.00 and get a FREE encouragement bracelet plus free shipping.

Please indicate which bracelet you would prefer and include address where you would like bracelet shipped.

The ebook title is: How To Encourage —Discover the Secret Words You Can Use To Empower Family, Friends, and Colleagues and How to Encourage Children

'Life is Hard' Encouragement

Do you ever feel discouraged, down, depressed--no hope for anything better in your life? Take courage. A brighter tomorrow is coming. But in the meantime...

“The truth is, life is hard. We live in a fallen world. Even those who have been redeemed live in earthly bodies and have to deal with the realities of temptation, sin (both our own and others), disease, loss, pain and death. We are not wrapped up in some sort of celestial cocoon where we are immune to pain. Not until God makes a new heaven and new earth will we be totally free from the ravages of sin. Until then, there will be tears, sorrows, pressures and problems.

But—and here’s the good news—God is not removed or detached from our problems. No, the God of the Bible is “a very present help in trouble” Psalm 46:1. That doesn’t mean He waves a magic wand and makes all our problems disappear; it does mean He uses pressures and problems to mold and shape our lives and to make us like His Son.

We want God to fix all our problems. God says instead, “I have a purpose for your problems. I want to use your problems to change you and to reveal My grace and power to the world.

That is the Truth—and the Truth will set you free.”
Lies Women Believe Nancy Leigh DeMoss