Be An Encourager Today

Welcome to the blog! It’s been over a year since I’ve written, so my hope is that I will be more faithful in posting. I think we can all agree how wonderful it is when someone truly takes the time to give us an encouraging word. I was reminded yesterday of how life-changing a positive compliment can be as I listened to this story about a 3rd grade teacher. She assigned her class to write a paragraph about a favorite birthday memory. After she collected the assignment, she began the laborious task of reading each paper. She had fun writing an encouraging message on each paper and adding a sticker. “Great job!” “What a fun memory!” “I really enjoyed reading this!”  And then came little Derrick’s paper. It was a MESS, filled with poor penmanship, spelling errors,  - it was even off-topic. The teacher’s first response was to take out the read pen and go to town circling all the mistakes. She stopped herself and pictured little Derrick. How would a paper filled with red marks help him? She desperately wanted to leave him with an encouraging word. But what? She thought for several minutes and finally wrote these words on the paper - “Nice margins!!”

Derrick was over-joyed when he received his paper back. For the rest of the year the teacher was able to teach and guide her little student to better writing and spelling. We should be thinking of ways to encourage those that cross our path. Establish eye contact with your waitress, smile at the person checking out your groceries, sincerely thank a salesperson that was helpful. How many people do we casually pass that are dealing with health concerns or financial stress or marriage problems. Look for the good. Find a person that needs to have “Good margins!!” written on their heart. ❤️