Who Can You Encourage Today?

As associate pastor, my husband had worked on the organizing, recruiting, planning, fixing-the-glitches aspects of our summer kids’ program for months.

The week arrived and for five days, we lived and breathed church activities and were thankful to see more than 700 kids attend, with many of them trusting Christ as Savior.

After church the following Sunday, we decided to go out to a dinner at a sit-down restaurant. We didn’t do that too often – as a young pastor’s family in our mid-twenties with two young kids and just coming off of expensive seminary bills, we didn’t have an over abundance of money, but we felt the family time was needed.

As we were eating, an older couple from church exited from another part of the restaurant and passed our table, said a quick “hello” and continued out the door.

Later the waitress brought us our check, but instead of the total we were expecting, the bill was paid. She handed us a note, Good job last week. Lots of kids heard the gospel. Our prayer is that you’ll be encouraged as you continue to serve. The note was signed by the older couple.

I don’t remember how much the bill was – we weren’t that big of eaters, but I do remembered the kindness of those people. Paying the bill for us that day was a mega dose of encouragement to us – two fairly young adults starting our pastoral journey. In fact, their encouragement meant so much to us, that I am writing about it decades later, remembering it as if it all happened yesterday.

How can you encourage someone this week?

By going out of your way to talk to the lonely little kid who comes to club, who comes from that broken home where adults are too busy to notice him?

By sending an encouraging note and a restaurant gift card to the director, commander or pastor?

By inviting that older gentleman who lives alone and doesn’t get out much (but always makes it to Awana to work with the kids) out for coffee or to your house for dinner?

By sending a card of encouragement and a grocery gift card to the single mom in your small group?

By telling the leader who leads the music, or the leader who leads the games or the director what a great job they do … because they do, but you’re always too busy to actually tell them?

By having the club make thank-you cards (and maybe cookies or brownies) and leaving them for the person who cleans your classroom each week?

Think about it.

This week …

Who can you encourage?

“Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”
—1 Thessalonians 5:11