A few years ago, I was at a prayer meeting at my church where we were discussing the gifts of the spirit in 1 Corinthians 12:1-12. This is one of my FAVORITE Bible teachings and I’m always eager to learn more about this subject. The gifts are as follows: wisdom, words of knowledge, faith, healing, miracles and prophesy. (We’re going deep on this blog guys! Get ready!)
Later on, we prayed and the leader of that meeting told me I have the gift of encouragement. Now this is not one of the previous 5 gifts mentioned, so I was kinda thrown off guard but if know me personally, you know that I am your biggest cheerleader or hype [wo]man, if you will.
Growing up, my mother put a big emphasis on saying thank you and speaking kindly to others. She always explained to me, that there were people less fortunate than me and everything I’d been given was a gift. There was no room for entitlement in our home.
As a child, I remember watching my mother write thank you cards and once I was old enough, I started to do the same thing. Being thankful and saying thank you have been engrained in me from a young age, as well as expressing my admiration for someone.
I love to compliment people from my heart. Saying something nice about someone is a joy. They perk up like a little plant that just had a drink of water. It makes my heart happy.
That being said, I was on social media the other day and saw a post about a friend’s child (older than my 3 year old) that had a learned a new skill. I was going to post about how my 3 year old learned that recently and I was happy for my friend. I didn’t even type up my response before I was like, “Nope. Not writing that.”. And responded with a ‘like’ instead.
Why did I need to make it about me or my son? Why not just say something nice about their child and move on. For me, it would’ve been taking away from my friend’s child’s achievement. Like look at my child but good for yours that they caught up. Not cool.
In an age of social media, there is an “it’s all about me” culture. Look at what I’m eating, where I’m going, what I’m wearing etc. (I’m guilty of this too. Ha! Just follow my Instagram stories!) That’s neither here nor there as long as we remember to acknowledge and engage with others in the real world. Try asking a cashier at the grocery store how they are doing or telling a friend that you admire them genuinely because of a good quality they posses. We don’t all need to be best friends but kind words can go a long way. Kindness Counts.
Isaiah 50:4a ESV –
The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught,
that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary.