Loving OthersSample

Spirit gifts: Encouraging The little girl came home from school beaming. Her mother asked, “Did you get a part in the school play?” “Yes!” she said. “I’ve been chosen to clap and cheer!” Some genius teacher was obviously anointed with the gift of encouragement, and she helped a child to discover the joy of encouraging others early in her young life. You know what it’s like to feel unappreciated. Boy, do you know! Sometimes it seems like you give and give and nobody notices. Your work seems not to matter to anybody. And then God sends someone with a kind word, and it’s like water to a parched throat in the desert. “We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. . . . If it is encouraging, let him encourage” (Romans 12:6,8). Have you ever noticed how people’s faces light up when you praise them? Have you ever pondered what a few words of encouragement cost you? Nada. Encouragers have an inner self-confidence. They aren’t emotionally needy and insecure, waiting for others to notice them. They have been given the gift of humility, happy to make somebody else look good. They can genuinely enjoy someone else’s good fortune without cursing their own lot in life. When you spot an encourager, you will probably find a crowd. Encouragers have a lot of friends.