The Power of Encouragement

Every morning when I wake up, the first thing I do is tell my wife that I love her. You might say that she should know that by now, after more than 40 years of being together, but she still likes to hear it. When your employee has done a good job, he’ll appreciate a “thank you”. It doesn’t matter if he’s doing what he gets paid for, encouragement means so much! Psalm 119:105 says,

“Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”

What keeps me going is the encouragement that I get from the Lord. Encouragement like we see in 1 John 19, which says that if we confess our sins, then He will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. In other words, there’s always hope if we keep our eyes on the Lord. Jesus never gave up on those who were failures in the sight of the world. In the Bible, there’s Mary Magdalene, a former prostitute, Matthew, a tax collector who was stealing from his own people, and many others. Jesus groomed them, encouraged them and turned them into giants of the faith, and when He called Peter to walk on water, and Peter lost his confidence, Jesus didn’t rebuke him. Instead, He stretched out His hand and helped Peter. The Lord turns us inside out and makes us into successes.

So, my dear friends, let us always encourage one another. It costs nothing to say, “Well done! You did a good job!” Encouragement is worth more than gold. We need to put negativity behind us – especially those harsh words that might have been spoken to us when we were young and have haunted us ever since. I’m not saying for a minute that we should tell lies, but we must choose to see the best in everything.  We must extend grace to people just like Jesus extended grace – undeserved love and kindness – to us. Thinking back to my early days of farming, I shudder at the mistakes I made and the amount of money I must have cost my employers, yet they always gave me another chance.

If we have no patience with our employees, they’ll never amount to anything, and it will actually be our fault.

If your children make a mistake and sincerely apologise, give them another chance. Why? Because that’s what Jesus said. Never miss an opportunity to be kind and encouraging. You’ll soon see how treating strangers – from shop assistants and waitresses to bank tellers and government bureaucrats – with a smile and a compliment will invariably work wonders, especially if the person is clearly having a bad day.

God bless
Angus & Jill Buchan