HOW TO ENCOURAGE

"Something happened to Marie as she got older--something she never imagined. Other women turned to her for encouragement. At first she had to fight the urge to run.

What do they see in me? she wondered. She had flashbacks of her own mother-a depressed, reclusive woman who chain-smoked through the anxiety of a life that felt overwhelming. Marie saw herself as having little to offer other women. She felt she needed mothering herself.

So Marie began to do something that felt a little strange at first. She offered what she could to the women God brought into her life--a listening ear, a word of empathy, a simple meal in a hard time.

More importantly, she let God mother her. From being loved, she learned how to love.
It seems like a small miracle to be able to give what I didn't get, she once said."

I love this paragraph in Paula Rinehart's book, Better Than My Dreams. How is it possible to be able to give to others when we are so needy ourselves?

The answer comes by asking the Father of Love to give a tiny drop of love from His infinite supply so that we are able to care for others, to have a heart for the hurting people in our life.

And that is a beautiful picture of how to encourage. Being a simple place of refuge, that comes from the freedom of an enlarged heart, where others will find a safe place to rest therein.