Don't Miss An Opportunity To Encourage Others

Never miss the opportunity to encourage somebody. I shudder to think how many times I've missed the boat and not encouraged someone when I had the chance. Life it too short to be the one that pulls others down or or the one that never says "good job; way to go!". We know how discouraging it is to be on the receiving end, why would we would to cause others to feel that way?

A few weeks ago I had the chance to screw up big time and let the air of my sister's sail,  and I almost did just that.  My little sister who is every bit as frugal and financially conservative as I am did the frugal unthinkable -- she rented a workspace. More specifically an art studio. To someone like me that enjoys art, but doesn't really "get it", my first thought when she excitedly called to tell me the news was "You did WHAT?! Why on EARTH would you waste good money on something like that?!"

Thankfully, after asking for some wisdom from God in how to respond gracefully, I was able to share her excitement of a dream fulfilled and encourage her. She said that my comments were the only good words she had heard that day -- whoa... and I almost said something negative and critical to crush her?

My sister has always had a natural gift for art -- as the older sister, I used to try and copy her pictures and drawings. She's gone to college to learn more and perfect her techniques and is quite accomplished, even selling some of her work.  The colored pencil of red raspberries above is one of my favorites. She created it years ago and to her it has a million faults, but I think it's beautiful! She did this completely from memory, every thorn and berry is perfect. It reminds me of those happy summer days when we picked gallons of raspberries with from our berry patch.