What Is Encouragement?

When I think of encouragement, I would define it as lifting up another's spirit, giving advice, a simple act of kindness through word or deed, and serving others. All of these would be done in love.

The American Heritage Dictionary Second College Edition defines encouragement as: "The act of encouraging." Encouraging is defined as "Giving courage, confidence or hope." Encourage is defined as: "To inspire with hope, courage or confidence; hearten. To give support to; foster. To stimulate."

The Bible has several verses that mention encourage or some form of encouragement.

Encourage:

1 Thessalonians 5:11 says "Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing."

1 Timothy 5:1 says "Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers,"

Encouraged:

Romans 1:12 says "that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine"

1 Corinthians 14:31 says "For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged,"

Colossians 2:2 says "that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ,"

Encouragement:

Romans 15:4 says "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."

Hebrews 6:18 says "so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us."

May you be encouraged by these verses tonight. I am.

Encouragement

Over the next couple of days I plan to do some blog posts on encouragement, on what it means, and various verses having to do with encouraging one another. I've always loved encouraging and helping others. It's something I like to do. I like to encourage others through my words and my actions. It is something I believe that all of us as believers in Christ should be doing every day. It is something Christ wants us to do. I hope that my blog posts and poems so far have been an encouragement to you and that they keep being an encouragement to you.

Tonight I leave you with this question: Who will you be an encouragement to before you head off to bed and for every day after that God gives you breath?

Eternity could be only a breath away. Live today as if you had no tomorrow because you aren't promised tomorrow.

Thank you God for giving me tonight to be an encouragement to someone else.

A Tribute to Robin Williams and Lauren Bacall

So this past week a couple of famous people passed away: one actor, Robin Williams, and one actress, Lauren Bacall. I loved watching Robin Williams play the merchant and the Genie in "Aladdin". He always made me laugh. Lauren Bacall was an amazing actress. I have only become acquainted with her films in the past couple years or so. Her films with Humphrey Bogart who is a favorite actor of mine are some of my favorites. My favorite films of hers are "Key Largo" and "To Have and Have Not". Since they both passed away I thought I would do a small tribute and post my favorite scenes of each of their movies that I liked.

Robin Williams:








Lauren Bacall:





What was your favorite film of theirs? They will never be forgotten.

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star: Becoming A Special Song

Today was a great day. I had a little girl who I mentioned before in a previous post ask me to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with her again. This is becoming a special song for the two of us and she only likes it when I hold her in my lap and sing the song with her. She is the most precious little girl. I don't know what I would do if she ever left my school. I thank God for her. She brings so much joy into my life.

I Am Thankful (Day 6)

What am I thankful for today?

I am thankful for..

1.)My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who died on the cross for me.

2.)My relationship with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It has been almost 14 years since that happened.

3.)My family. I wouldn't change my family for anyone else in the world.

What are you thankful for? Is there anything I could be praying for you about?

I Am Thankful (Day 5)

I am thankful for...

1.) The Lord opening a door and blessing me in a way I could have only dreamed of.

2.) A dad who encourages me to pursue a dream and helps make it a reality.

3.) Lots of hugs that I received from the children today.

Today has been an AWESOME day because I can see God in it. :-D

CHLA update

So I have thought of a way CHLA could expand to reaching more than just children in hospitals with cards.

If you have no clue what I'm talking about well then I would recommend that you read my previous blog post titled CHLA which you can see if you click on CHLA.

Anyways instead of just sending cards to children at hospitals why not expand it to people all over the world! We can reach out to people we know. All it would take is me getting a PO Box and the address of the family who it would be going to and people could send me cards for the family that would be picked. Then I could put all the cards together in an envelope and mail it to the family in need of prayer, love and encouragement. The family themselves wouldn't know that the cards would be coming for them. I think we could probably do this once a month. I would pick a family the first week of the month based off the previous months nominations. I would give people two weeks to send cards or other things to me and then I would mail it to the family the last week of the month. I'd like this to be special, something where the family was nominated by someone they know. I'd love to set up a website where people could anonymously or not ask if we could send cards to someone they know. I already have a couple families in mind to start it off. What do you think??? Suggestions, comments?

I Am Thankful (Day 4)

I am thankful today for:

1. A wonderful message from Travis Allen at Doulos at Grace Community Church this morning. His message was convicting. I found the most convicting part when he said "Your pastime should be deep study in Scripture and not in Facebook." I should be spending less time on Facebook and more time with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Another part that really spoke to me was when he was talking about temptation that the Devil throws at us. Travis said "Put in words what you feel like doing and that will help you fight off the temptation and entices. Articulate the temptations you feel. You are not in bondage to them." I think when I encounter those temptations and entices I will try doing that and see if that helps.

2. A nice time working on invitations for my sister's bridal shower with my sister and my mom. We got them all done today.

3. A nice time with the family and Brian playing Yahtzee. I haven't played that game in forever. It was so much fun.

What are you thankful for?

I Am Thankful (Day 3)

Today I am thankful that:

1.) I got more answers in regards to my dream becoming a reality by doing some research on the CHLA website. More information to come in the next day or so but I'm really excited!

2.) I got to spend some quality time watching a documentary at the library with my mom. The documentary was about The Harvey Girls.

3.) I am feeling a lot better. Not sure if my allergies are acting up or it is a cold but today was a lot better than yesterday.

I Am Thankful (Day 2)

For the next 5 days I will be posting 3 things that I am thankful for. Thank you to my friends Kristi and Nicole for suggesting I do this.

Today:

1.) I am thankful for Miss K our school age teacher, whose last day was today, because she has to start her next semester at the university. She is a sweet and caring teacher and friend. She always had a smile on her face. I look forward to seeing where God takes you. You are going to be great in whatever you do! :)

2.) I am thankful for Miss M, who has been helping this past week. I have learned so much from you in just watching how you interact with the children. I hope to implement some of the techniques you have done with the kids and work on my tone of voice as I speak to the kids. Hopefully they will learn to respect me more.

3.) I am thankful that I got to spend some quality time with my dad tonight watching "The Harder They Fall." This was Humphrey Bogart's final film before he passed away. I cherish the time I get to spend with my dad and mom alone when my sisters have to go to work.

What are you thankful for?