You are an encouragement!

Hi everyone, I hope you all are having a great start to the week wherever you may be.  Before I get into my chat, I wanted to recognize that there are members of my family and friends who are suffering through very difficult weather conditions.  My home state of Texas sure has seen some incredible challenges as well as friends and family right here in Oregon and Washington.  I have and will continue to pray for each and every single one of you.  

Have any of you ever been in a situation where life just seems to be in a bad mood and your situation looks a little less than desirable?  I know that some of you may; at this very moment, be in a tough situation and I can tell you that I have had my fair share of struggles as well.  I can also tell you that there are things in life that we have to do that are tough and most of those things cannot be done alone.  Sometimes encouragement from others can help us do the tough things we couldn’t do alone.  My wife and girls were a huge encouragement yesterday as I had some firewood processing to do and they were there to move and stack all the wood I cut up.  I can't tell you how encouraging that was to me.  

When I was searching through God’s Word looking for supporting verses I stumbled upon this one in Hebrews and man, it sure does hit the nail on the head:  Hebrews 10:24-25 reads; 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

I think this verse is so applicable to today as we all are finding ourselves in some pretty difficult situations but just as the verses say, we can each be encouraging to one another.  We can help sustain each other. Reaching out and lifting someone’s spirit is especially important when life gets tough. We need to take time to encourage our friends and family by sharing strong uplifting conversation or even offers of help in tough times.  We must also remember that God’s words are even more encouraging than we could ever be so please, take some time and consider the verse I shared with you.  I normally don't do this but I will today.  I ask, who can you encourage today?  I ask each of you to find at least one person today and encourage them.  Thank you.  

As we move on through the difficulties we find ourselves in right now I pray that read this as me trying to encourage you but mainly me encouraging you to be an encouragement to someone else.  

Stay safe out there everyone.  

J.