If you're like me, you're "up to here" with news accounts loaded with name-calling and dismal tales of corruption. On all sides.
Like one of the characters in an old cowboy movie, "Ah hanker to hear somethin' good."
In those movies the other sunburned cowhand would look up at the Technicolor-perfect sky, spit out the blade of grass between his teeth and say, "Well, sure, Shorty. Reckon Ah 'kin do that."
Maybe he'd stretch long and tall, then pick up his guitar and sing a song with a tune that stayed in one's mind.
It might be the song many of us learned as children. Remember?
"Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam, where the deer and the antelope play.
"Where seldom is heard a discouraging word and the skies are not cloudy all day."
Nobody cared whether that cowboy-turned-philosopher could sing. He had heart.
Long before I traveled West of the Mississippi, hearing words like that made me thankful to live in such a great country.
Maybe we should start a movement where we are
The only qualification for membership is to focus on what's right--and talk about it.
Let's not stop there. Let's be the ones who speak the good word, whether to our children and grandchildren or to our friends and neighbors.
Most of us can think of a time when we were scraping the bottom of our ability to cope. Then someone quietly said something like this: "I know it will work out for you. Remember, I'm praying for you and I'm ready to listen any time."
People can live a long time on one encouraging remark.
One quality which unites us, rich or poor, young or old ...
We all long to hear words like these:
- "I believe in you."
- "You're working hard and that always pays off, even when it takes awhile."
- "Of course you'll make it through this. Look at all you have going for you."
- "I can see you're learning and growing. That's the way to reach your goals."
- "I know you'll find a job and who knows? It may be the best job you ever had."
- "God is faithful and He will carry you through this."
Who needs words like these?
Truett Cathy, the founder of the Chick-Fil-A restaurant chain, put it this way.
"How do you know if someone needs encouragement? If they're breathing."
The great thing about lifting another person's mood is that it raises our spirits, too. Before long we start getting back what we've been giving out. Other people find us easy to be around.
It means we focus on the possible, not the impossible.
More often than seems logical, the difference between a person who succeeds and one who fails is that the ones who make it believe they will.
Almost always, someone planted that thought, then watered it with repetition, love and encouragement.
King Solomon talked about that long ago:
An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up. --Proverbs 12:25
Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. --Proverbs 16:24
A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. --Proverbs 25:11
Our simple, heartfelt words can change night into day for someone else.
So let's vow to throw out discouraging words and substitute words that bring sunshine instead of clouds.
Perhaps we can't change the world, but we can affect the climate where we live.
Still learning,
Lenore
