TIME Encouragement

Our pastor shared he was having a conversation with his son about what he liked best on their boundary waters camping trip. He expected him to talk about the fishing, camping, games played, friends that were on the trip; so was surprised his answer was, ‘time spent with you Dad.’

Some time ago a paper went around that said ‘what Ryan Holladay (11 years old) and his friends want their parents to know.’ The time issues were huge.

• Always make time for me.
• We can sit around and talk, read a book, or do something else.
• I want to know you like to spend time with me.
• I like it when you have fun with me.
• Take time to explain things to me.
• Take me on short errands with you if I want to go.
• Try not to miss my ball games, school plays, or activities that are special to me.
• Family activities really make me feel close to everyone.

For more insights on how to encourage your child see
How to encourage

Encouraging Quotes

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
Leo Buscaglia

I choose to rise up out of the storm
and see that in moments of desparation, fear,
and helplessness, each of us can be a
rainbow of hope, doing what we can to
extend ourselves in kindness and grace to
one another. And I know for sure that there
is no them...there's only us.
Oprah Winfrey

Encouraging Words

Have you ever gone to a seminar on a business topic that you are interested in and been all fired up to do whatever they said, but a week later you are still doing things the way you've done them before you went? In other words, the challenge and motivation from one weeklong or weekend seminar is not permanent.

To keep yourself encouraged, inspired, motivated enough to be able to pass it along to others you must receive encouragement on a regular basis. You must feed your mind and soul positive stuff to keep it going in the right direction. Positive input equals positive output. It takes alot of work, but it is so worth it!

Encouragement is my passion also because it is so very important in our lives. For more info, check out How to encourage

Encouragement to Give your Children TIME

Listening to and talking with your child go hand in hand with family time and one of the best time-out activities is dinnertime. I am fearful that a generation of families has forgotten or never has known how to do this. Families across the nation that care about their children’s development are reclaiming the dinner hour and for good reason.

According to The National Center on Addiction and Abuse and American Psychological Association, dinnertime plays a crucial role in establishing communication with your children. “Well-adjusted teens-those with better relationships with their peers, more academic motivation and few, if any, problems with drugs and depression-ate dinner with their families an average of five days a week.”

Of course, the time to start is when children are young, because eating with the family is about more than just nourishing with food. It’s nurturing and educating children about family values and beliefs as well as discussions about what is going on in the world.

Parents forget and even doubt their ability to positively affect their children’s choices, but facts show that kids from hands-on families are at lower risk for substance abuse. Other benefits state children of families that regularly dine together tend to have higher self-esteem, interact better with their peers and show higher resilience when life gets tough.

With all the relentless negative press on high profile celebrity type 'mixed-up people', now would be the perfect time to sit and talk to your children about life-your beliefs and values.

Start simple.
Start now.
You can do it.

Encouraging Words-What the World Needs Now

"People are hurting and empty. They are exhausted and yet they were made for relationship. In their need to be loved they will do anything to fill the hole in their heart. That's the day we live in." Rusty Benson in the AFA Journal magazine. www.afajournal.org

The simple basic truth is that people want to love and be loved. Dr. David Jeremiah in his book, the Power of Encouragement explains it this way, “We are shaped by those who love us or refuse to love us, and by those whom we love or refuse to love. Love is crucial! The world cries out for genuine love, love which heals, unites, and encourages.”

We talk about it, we read about it, we seek it, we sing about it. Lyrics from the Beatles ‘All you need is love’ and Burt Bacharach’s ‘What the world needs now is love sweet love,’ are two examples of thousands of songs that portray the emptiness people feel without love.

What can you do to help people?

Saying the simple but profoundly powerful words-I LOVE YOU-is the absolute beginning. We need to hear words of love expressed out loud. The story of the insensitive husband who said, “Of course I love you and if I change my mind, you’ll be the first to know!” Telling a child ten times 'I love you' might not be enough to overcome yelling at them once.

Start simply. Start today.

Practice saying the three most powerful encouraging words known to mankind out loud now. Something miraculous will happen.

I LOVE YOU!

RANDOM ENCOURAGING WORDS

1. Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people before meeting the right one so that when we finally do meet the right person, we will know how to be grateful for that gift.
2. Love is when you take away the feeling, the passion, and the romance in a relationship and find out that you still care for that person.
3. When the door of happiness closes, another opens, but often times we look so long at the closed door that we don't see the one that has been opened for us.
4. The best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with while never saying a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you've ever had.
5. It's true that we don't know what we've got until we lose it, but it's also true that we don't know what we've been missing until it arrives.
6. There are things you'd love to hear that you would never hear from the person who you would like to hear them from, but don't be so deaf as not to hear it from the one who says it from their heart

NEVER QUIT Encouragement

It would have been so easy for Erica to quit. After all she had been through alot, but Kent Schmeltz did not raise a quitter!

Although her beloved father died suddenly midway through her sophomore year of high school from a massive heart attack, she can still hear his words, "never give up, do your best, stay positive and never leave anything with regrets."

Starting the first game of the soccer season as a freshman defender, Erica suffered torn ligaments in her left knee. After surgery and rehab got her ready for the second half of the basketball season, she tore her ACL at a New Year's Eve practice.

"The second rehab was easier than the first because I knew what to expect," Erica said. "I was able to push myself harder."

And she never gave up. However, between her junior year soccer and basketball, she injured her knee a third time while at travel soccer tryouts. Then she started wondering if her playing days were done.

"Everyone had advice for me, but I wanted to make my own decision. In my heart, I knew I loved to compete, so it wasn't hard to decide to keep going."

Of course, she struggled with fear and pain, but her senior year has gone as planned. She knew she could not live with herself if she gave up.

Her attitude did not go unnoticed. She won the Thomas A. Brady Comeback Award for the state of Indiana, sponsored by the Methodist Sports Medicine Research and Education Foundation in Indianapolis.

"Her character and faith had so much to do with her coming all the way back," said her high school athletic trainer who nominated her for the award. It has not been an easy road, but Erica was raised on the farm and knows the meaning of hard work and perseverence.

She's the ultimate comeback kid.

If Erica can do it, so can you.