Are you an encourager?

Have you ever known someone who really believed in you? Someone who spoke words of encouragement and praise - the kind of person, who made you feel special, made you feel like you could accomplish anything. Paul describes this in Ephesians 4:29 “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

Life is full of problems. I’ve had my share this week. I am the technology director at a private K-12 school outside of Atlanta, GA. We fully embrace technology and use it regularly for just about everything. This week, we got blacklisted by several email providers, our web site went down, and our school information system went down. Our firewall was working great – except it blocking us from accessing our own sites! All in all, a bad week for us here in the tech department.

Now I get to choose how I am going to let all that affect me. Am I going to start complaining to everyone I see? Am I going to “yell” at the guys in my department? Or, am I going to be a positive person? Am I going to look for ways to encourage the guys on my team? None of what happened this week is their fault – they just had to deal with it and get things fixed. It is my job to speak positively and be an encourager.

I am blessed to have a wonderful 15 year-old daughter. One of the things that makes her special is her faith and her walk with God. Even at 15, we still have a prayer time together every night before she goes to bed. She prays about her school work – as a normal high school student would. But, she also prays for her friends, kids at school who are sick, and every night we pray that God will show us how to be a blessing in someone else’s life tomorrow. We are convinced that God wants to use us to bless others around our school.

How are you encouraging others? Are you a positive influence in the lives of others? Does your attitude cause others to want to be with you or run from you? Pray about who you might encourage and then do it.


Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing (1 Thessalonians 5:11)

And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone (1 Thessalonians 5:14).

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if any-thing is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things (Philippians 4:8).