A Word in Due Season - Encouragement for Every Day

Wow... I totally was blown away by God's goodness yesterday.  I made an honest mistake, of seeking out someone's opinion on something unrelated and the response, I felt, was totally the enemy's attempt to derail me.

Let me explain.  I sought out the opinion of a dear friend and successful independent business woman.  I completely valued her response which was honest and extremely insightful.  Yet just over a year ago, the response would have totally derailed me.  I'm so pleased to say, that because of the years this woman mentored me, the support of a loving husband, and the continued closeness to Jesus that I seek, I was able to totally overlook it and not really notice it.  Because it was not the intention of this beautiful woman to derail me, it was the enemy's conniving way of letting our minds twist words around to our disadvantage.  Not to mention that is is so easy to misinterpret text vs. the spoken word.

Along comes another dear friend.  A friend much my junior, yet we were "besties" for a few years and it was a fun time.  I miss those days.  Anyway; I was sitting outside on my deck last evening, reading "Money Making Mom", and I stopped to pray.  "Lord, if this really is a time waster for me and others, please show me that I need to stop.  I really want to please you and if this not pleasing to you or encouraging others, then please confirm that I need to stop."  So in my ADD world, I stopped to check social media before I went back to reading and there it was... on Instagram... the words of love and encouragement that I needed.  "I love your blog.".  It meant the absolute world to me and coming from the person that sent it, meant even more.  God is so good!

Think on this and try to keep this on your radar... our words are so powerful.  They can make or break someone.  We can also misinterpret words and mistakenly get hurt or worse, hold grudges when the intention was not to hurt or make angry.  A good rule of thumb... if what someone says kinda hits you the wrong way, gently ask them to clarify what they said.  I'm sure you will find that the answer they give is gentle and clarifies that it was not intended to hurt you or make you angry.  And if it was, turn the other cheek and focus on those that truly respect and love you.

May the Lord grant you an exceptional week of encouragement and of encouraging others!