Taking time to Encourage one Another

               Twice a week is our current number of visits to the university Fitness Center.  The workout actually begins before we even show our membership cards because upon entering, one has to go down about two open flights of stairs and then climb right back up again to the area where we exercise.  As I made my way up one day, a man going down on the other side said to me, “One hundred percent determination,” and repeated it.  At that moment, I felt he was acknowledging my neurological challenges (weakness and spasticity below the waist) and encouraging my efforts to “keep at it.”

               Sometimes we forget how much good just a few kind words, spoken or written, or some kind gesture can do.  A beginning to offering encouragement is to notice others and care about them.  Then one needs to act on this in some way.  The man who spoke to me apparently had noticed me walking around with a cane and wanted to commend me for exercising regularly.  Several others at our “casual exercise club” (Fitness Center folk) have offered praise and encouragement to me, also. 

               Ian Maclaren, a minister and writer in Great Britain in the late l870s, is often quoted for this insight:  Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting some hard battle.”   Some difficulties are not as obvious as others, like chronic pain, addiction, significant debt, bankruptcy, grief, illness, and abuse at home.  But whatever the difficulty, God wants us to respond in helpful, encouraging ways.  The love chapter in the Bible (1 Corinthians 13)s begins by stating, “Love is patient; love is kind.”

               The Greek word paraklesis means encouragement, consolation, comfort, exhortation and entreaty, and frequently appears in the scriptures.   Barnabas, one of the apostles, was called the son of encouragement (Acts 4:36) as he sold a field and freely gave the money to the apostles’ needs.  Such an affirming action was part of how he earned this title.  When other apostles responded with fear and suspicion of Paul, doubting he was a disciple, Barnabas showed kindness and encouragement.  He introduced him to the group, validating Paul’s experience after his miraculous conversion and preaching with power (Acts 9:27).

               In 1999, Martin G. Collins shared this concern: “As society puts more distractions before us, encouraging others is becoming a lost art” (The Forerunner publication).  Especially among younger people, it seems that “being busy” is common in America today, even seen by some as an indication of one’s importance.  Yet, Paul encourages us “to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life” (1 Thes. 4:11).  In other words, keep it simple, focusing on what is important in our lives of faith.

               Let’s consider becoming like brothers and sisters to Barnabas, freely offering genuine kindness and encouragement to one another. 

Mother and her Green Dishes

                Mother’s green dishes have always been special and perhaps reveal some of her best qualities.  At a young age, I welcomed the occasional opportunities I had to eat pudding in a special stemmed glass or have tea parties using the cups and saucers.  These green dishes, known as Depression Glass, had been available in the late 20s to the early 40s, even before my mother’s birth in 1942, and had been collected and kept in her family over the years.  Many pieces came from gas station or movie theater sales as incentives to spend what little money people had.

                But somehow, a vast assortment of the glassware came to be housed in mother’s corner hutches and good-sized buffet.  The times she proudly used them were for church daytime circle meetings or for women’s PTA gatherings in our dining room.  Curiously, I don’t know why we never used them for special occasions ourselves, although the fairly inexpensive glassware came to be of some value.

                Mother, like many women in our neighborhood and in that time, was a stay-at-home mom.  She was very involved in grade school activities and participated in many ways at our church, easily within walking distance.  Although I earned a teaching degree, my personal aspirations and activities as a young mother were much like hers.  After teaching high school English four years, I willingly stayed home as our three children were young and therefore, also had the opportunity to join the mothers’ club and be even more active in Christian activities, not always connected to a particular church.

                At the age of 20 after my older brother’s birth, mother began to experience what would be called post partem psychosis today, later to be identified as manic depression.  How her life would have been different apart from this serious health issue will never be known.  I once asked a young psychiatrist how we can know where the illness ends and the character begins; he struggled with the same distinction.  But as I became a teenager, I knew I purposely would not be like her in some ways.  For example, she did not manage household issues well, like getting the laundry done or keeping the house clean which became a source of contention with my father. 

                So much has been discovered about the brain and the chemical make-up that affects our behavior.  I’m sorry my parents had to struggle through shock treatments and other therapies during times when resources were so much less and the social stigma—that still remains to a degree—so much greater on such health issues.  However, despite these hardships in my family, I am thankful for mother’s good qualities, including her social friendliness, her constancy toward God, and her willingness to have fun and use those green dishes even for our private parties.