Hello everyone. 🙂
In this blog post, I am talking about “encouragement.” There is so much discouragement in the world, and it’s wonderful that God gives each of us the opportunity to be among those who encourage and uplift.
We humans tend to notice those who are prominent, while sometimes we overlook others who have very important jobs too, really, but whose jobs are not highly esteemed. Case in point: who would be likely to be admired and appreciated: a neurosurgeon, or the janitor who keeps his or her office clean? In reality, both the neurosurgeon and the janitor fill important roles. The neurosurgeon performs highly specialized, skilled work that saves lives, and the janitor helps to save live too. Save lives? Yes! Germs make people sick, and the janitor helps to control the number of germs flying around by cleaning the neurosurgeon’s office.
We humans may sometimes not express words of appreciation for people’s efforts, and may instead tend to save our words of appreciation for results that show. It can be easier for us to only focus on a person’s lack of natural talent or qualifications, rather than on his or her determination, goodheartedness, kindness, perseverance etc.. Even if we can’t in good conscience encourage someone in his or her endeavor, we can at least notice the positive character traits we see in him or her and can suggest other avenues in which we think these traits might be put to better use.
If we hold up results as the main thing that matters, we could be setting up less experienced, hardworking, and/or less naturally gifted people for discouragement. If, however, we spend more time appreciating hard work, dedication, perseverance, etc., while suggesting ways in which the strengths we see in each other might be put to the best use, we can create a more inclusive and encouraging environment which, I believe, will result in better performance in life, because we all know that encouraged people perform better.
Here is my challenge to all of us: let’s thank people who we believe deserved to be thanked for their services. Thank the doctors, nurses, first responders etc, and also don’t overlook the janitors, the food service personnel, the sanitation workers etc.
Tell your children that you’re pleased with their “A’s” in school, and also tell your children who may not be academically gifted, but who work diligently and faithfully at their schoolwork, that you are pleased with them too because they have worked so hard. Tell all of your children that you believe in them, and that perseverance and diligence are very admirable traits to have.
I hope you’ll join me in being an intentionally, proactively encouraging person. The world needs more people like this. I wouldn’t doubt that we might see some very good improvements in society at large if more people would decide to be intentionally encouraging.
Learn and Grow 4ever 