Encouragement

I started a new devotional book today – A Daily Woman’s Devotional.  Today’s devotional was on encouragement.  Hebrews 3:13 – “Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today.”  A few things really caught my attention as I was reading it.

Encouragement is fuel for the soul. 

God puts us in places and situations with people whose lives we can impact with the simplest of phrases. 

Don’t miss the opportunity.


One of the thought provoking questions at the end asked, “who has been an encouragement to you?”  “Have you let them know?”  These questions started me thinking over the past sixteen months in particular since Scott’s death.  There have been so many people who have been an encouragement to me.  I have tried to let you know if you have been an encouragement with a timely word or thought, but I know that I have missed thanking many people.   There have been many times when a simple word or thought shared gave me the strength to keep pushing forward.  There have been other times when the simple word or thought shared has forced me to face negative thinking and look to God for strength.  Then there have been times that the caring word or thought has gotten me through the day.  God has used each and every one of your caring words or thoughts to help me to not feel so alone, to be sad for our loss but treasuring our memories, to keep me focused on God, and to give me wisdom and strength in helping Jaelyn on her grief journey and with all the major changes in our lives.  Just know how special you all are to Jaelyn and I.  Whether you have come along side us in prayer, thought, word, or deed, you have been a vital part of our journey, and for that we are deeply thankful.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Normal"

Well,  I went back to work today and Jaelyn went back to school.  Life goes on as "normal."  I had a pretty good day at work and Jaelyn had a good first day of school.  So why am I angry?  How can life go on as normal with one of the most important people in my life gone?  I don't want normal again -- life isn't normal when your spouse dies at such a young age with no warning.  My mind and my heart want to fight against normal.  Normal makes it feel like it wasn't a big deal that Scott died and that he didn't matter, and it was and is a big deal and he did matter.  Yet life must go on.  It doesn't seem right.  I want life to just pause for a moment to acknowledge the significance of Scott's life gone, yet life goes on.  It is hard to move on, plan for the future that he was always to be a part of and now is not. I know I'm not the first person to experience grief and loss and will not be the last person.  I know that Scott is not the first signif
Read more

New Hobby -- Clay jewelry and crafts with Sculpey Clay

Image
One of my friends got me started making jewelry about 2 years ago.  I tried selling necklaces and earrings at one point early on but discovered that making money by making jewelry is not the easiest thing in the world especially since it seems like eveyone is into making jewelry.  I still enjoy making jewelry, but I am getting overloaded with necklaces.  I mean really, a person can only wear so many necklaces.  So just recently I decided to expand my jewelry making into actually making the beads and pendants themselves.  On a recent trip to Michael's, our local craft store, I discovered Sculpey clay that can be baked in a regular oven.  I bought a DVD put out by Sculpey on different processes and steps to making certain types of items, jewelry, luggage tags, picture frames, etc.  It teaches the basic techniques to obtaining certain basic looks that can be expanded on to make more elaborate pieces.  I have been experimenting with it the last couple of days and am really enjoy
Read more

Nine years

Image
August 10, 2012  — A date that will forever be etched in my memory.  A date that was the most live altering day of my life so far.  In the past nine years, we have learned to live without Scott’s physical presence in our lives, although it has been one of the hardest things I have ever done.  Something that if someone had told me beforehand was going to happen, I would have said I/we could not handle.  I have heard that God doesn’t send you anything that you can’t handle.  I would disagree with that — God doesn’t send anything that HE can’t handle.  It is only by the grace and strength of God that we have not only made it through the past nine years, but, dare I say, thrived.  That is not to deny the rough patches and how hard it truly was, but when I look at Jaelyn all I can do is thank God that He brought us BOTH through so far with grace and strength.  This past year I think has been one of the hardest of the nine and I know there will be more rough ones to come.  This past year has
Read more