Who Can You Encourage?

Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. 1 Corinthians 13:8 (AMPC)

The happiest people on earth are those who have stopped expecting perfection.

In fact, this is one of the reasons why grandparents can be so special. Many have come to a place in life where they’ve made their share of mistakes so they’ve stopped expecting perfection from people—especially their grandkids.

With a loving smile and a hug, these grandparents will accept you just as you are, even if you just broke their favourite mug or tracked mud all over the carpet. When you fail, they can be your biggest encouragers because they know what it is to fall and pick themselves back up again.

Kids need this kind of encouragement in their lives, and not just from their parents and grandparents. They also look for it elsewhere—in friends, teachers, coaches and later on in dating relationships. If someone believes in them, they tend to rise up to that level of expectation. We all need to feel that someone believes in us.

It’s sad when people get so focused on problems that they stop believing in each other. Actually, some people go their entire lives without ever feeling like one person believed in them.

This is why church has to be a place of encouragement. It can’t be judgmental and critical. People need to know that God believes in them because, even as adults, we still rise to the level of what is expected of us.

If people think that God is disappointed with them, they lose hope. But if you can show them that God loves, accepts and believes in them, they can change and grow to become more than they dreamed possible. Who can you encourage today?