Encourage Yourself!

Yesterday I talked about encouraging others. Today I’m talking about you encouraging you!

Yes, we can and many times will have to encourage ourselves. There will be times you have to stand alone. Others will not be there for you. They will not see what you see. They will not have your vision, your principles or motivation. You will have to hold the line by yourself. Take courage! This will build fortitude (another word for strength) so you can go further, become stronger, last longer, endure more – (that doesn’t sound fun, it sounds like hardship involved!!!)

We’ll have to chew our own meat – no ground up baby food involved. But I’ve heard it said meat is for the strong. No carnivore diet spoken of intentionally here, but meat makes strong muscles and we’ll need them to weather our storms, mental, emotional, spiritual and physical.

So, you had the idea to build the first lighthouse at sea alerting ships to steer clear and not get dashed to pieces in the dark. ‘How are you going to do that’, somebody said. ‘You can’t, the surf is too strong, water too deep, tide comes in, you’ll get washed out’… and on and on.

Yet! Somebody kept at it. They planned and planned and thought and thought and tried and finally the first successful one was built and saved many lives. ‘I could never do that!’ Maybe not your area of expertise, but there is something that you and you alone can and need to do. You – yes you – plan and think and try things out until you succeed. Begin to encourage yourself more!

Now back to the lighthouse. No one built it completely by themselves, but there had to be an idea, maybe guarded at first until it could develop and ‘build up steam’, and then others became involved. It began with them.

Today I am not giving up on my plan, thought, dream to ….

Encouragement

To give courage is a good way of saying it.

This day and age we all need to be encouraged, and each of us need to be encouragers. We’re all fighting battles, mental, emotional, physical, spiritual and some days the battle seems a bit more intense. Some courage – even if borrowed from another – would be helpful.

Courage is transferable, just like dis-courage is transferable. Why not belong to the encouragement group of helping, lifting up, building up, holding up. The dis-courage group is seen everywhere…knock down, tear down, close down, telling them why it can’t be done…foolish, stupid, etc. etc. etc.  Is our inner networking built up by encouraging others or by knocking somebody down to go higher?

I believe the majority belong to the encouragement bunch who want to see good, be good and do good. But the dis-couragement bunch tries to prevent it. Sometimes that dis-couragement ‘bunch’ resides inside our own head! We have to root those thoughts out!

In the long run, good will overcome evil, but no sense in causing more suffering along the way by participating in the ‘dis-courage bunch’.

Today, let’s rise higher, think nobler, be better, build more, encourage more and see the difference. It may only be noticeable in you or to you. But all good things start with a single step. You start and take the first step.

Today, I will…:)

In Any Land

In any land you have a mix of people. You have a mix of thoughts.

  • The positive thinkers the negative thinkers.
  • The good doers the bad doers.
  • Those who have direction and those who’ve lost their direction.
  • Those who have hope and those with no hope.

All these contrasts and differences; how can they work, live – even be together? We who are strong are to bear the infirmities of the weak, yet each man must bear his own load. How does this all work?

That’s why there are standards/guiding principles to help us live even when we don’t feel the best or want to do the best. I’m thinking of two right now:

  1. In as much as possible with you, be at peace with all men. You do what you can, and let the rest be, and continue on with your life.
  2. The Golden Rule: Treat others as you want to be treated. Again, do your best and leave the rest.

If in our little areas (our ‘campsites’) we abide by these guidelines, we will find ways to work together and meet the needs of others.

Let’s work together.