I am a pretty sarcastic person and encouragement probably isn’t one of my spiritual gifts, but the church Michelle and I are at is filled with encouraging people and I am finding it really makes a difference.
For instance, after sending my first “all church” email as the new administrator I received an email of thanks from one of the elders. In it he made a joke and I sent back a witty response – to which I received another encouraging email about the fantastic sense of humor that I had. In a normal situation, I would have received such praise as sarcasm, but this gentlemen really is this encouraging. While it seem completely foreign to me to be handing out praise for such mundane and normal activities, I find that it makes an impact on all the people in the church. One thing special about the church I found is that it doesn’t seem to have grumblers and complainers who are never satisfied, but instead is filled with people who truly love the church, even the messy aspects of it.
Being in a place of such encouragement will be good for me. Hopefully one day I can earn myself the nickname “Sunshine” from being around all these encouraging people.
Posted on August 27, 2011 by Ryan
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