Encourage Your Family
“They helped every one his neighbour; and every one said to his brother,
Be of good courage. So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that
smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the
sodering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.”
(Isaiah 41:6,7 KJV)
I have had severe pain in my feet, my legs, my back and my arms for several days
from my arthritis. I was starting to get discouraged because I’m not able to do
what I want to do. However, God is faithful and He always knows when we need His
special touch. He used my sister to encourage me today.
Joyce Landorf Heatherley, a Christian author and speaker who God has used to
encourage me many times, said on one of her teaching tapes “I have pain that
wipes out my caring ability and if I’m going to make it through, it’s going to
have to be because of you”.
When I hung up the telephone after talking to my sister today, I was still in a
lot of pain but I wasn’t discouraged any more because I know that she loves me.
I made it through today because God used my sister to encourage me. How I thank
God for my sister.
We are to be encouragers to one another. However, I think that sometimes we
forget or don’t realize that we are to encourage our families. It is especially
important that we encourage the men in our families because society has done
them an injustice. I have lost track of the times I have read or heard someone
say “Men shouldn’t cry.”
If Jesus cried, it is certainly okay for men to cry. We read in the Bible “Jesus
wept” (John 11:35). May God have mercy on us and forgive us for making the men
in our families feel that they are not men if they cry and show their emotions.
Have you said something or did something to encourage your family lately?
Remember, they hurt just like you do and they need to be encouraged just like
you do.
Joanne Lowe
June 14, 2010
joannelowe8@cox.net
www.joanne-ourprecioussaviour.blogspot.com