Encourage One Another Daily…
Oct 16th, 2008 by ljkim
So here’s something that I’m terrible at doing: encourage people. For some reason I feel shy about saying good things. It’s much easier to say neutral things, or mildly critical things. But the Bible doesn’t say we should criticise each other daily (constructively), or be neutral to one another, but “encourage.” Maybe it’s because the Bible knows what behaviorists have been pointing out recently, that people learn a lot better from positive reinforcement than negative ones. Instead of criticizing people for their mistakes, it usually works much better when people are complemented for what they’ve done right. See, criticism will make you try not to do that wrong thing, but it won’t actually help you to do the right thing. Oftentimes criticism just encourages people not to get caught. But encouragement actually points people in the right direction…
Real encouragement is hard! And it has to be real, or else it’s not really encouragement. You have to catch people in the act of being good, or loving, or faithful, and gently call them on it. Say, “hey I saw that, that was cool.” That means you have to be looking carefully enough and be close enough to catch those moments. When people do “good things” hoping other people will notice, those things don’t deserve encouragement; they’re already getting their reward… But when people do good things “just because”, with no ulterior motive, and you notice – it just makes them want to do more!
Now as a community we want to be encouraging. Yes, sometimes people do need constructive criticism. But not frequently. Not daily. What we need daily is encouragement. This isn’t my idea, it’s God’s. Because that’s how God is. He catches everything you do when no one’s looking. He’s the Father who encourages all the right things… no He doesn’t care about your awards, your money, or how pretty/handsome you look (maybe your biological parents made a fuss over those things, but they were wrong to do so). God notices when you repent, when you’re humble, when you’re kind, when you turn from human ways of doing things and rely on Him to be better… Well done! He is the believer’s reward. But in the meantime we can reflect that a little bit by learning to encourage one another in real and practical ways.
[About the photo: a random parade on Columbus day... So what if they're going the wrong way?]
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