our encourager

When I was younger, I played on a women's softball team for one season. One season. It wasn't a huge dream of mine. I did it to be with a group of female friends who urged me to join them, but mostly I did it to see if I could do it at all. I wasn't any good. We had great comraderie and I even made it to first base once or twice. By the end of the season I was connecting with the ball well and there was even potential to do better. But, I was done. I'd proven to myself I could do it and was ready to move on to other things. No amount of encouragement or urging enticed me to continue.

Another time, I went to a Women's Wilderness Weekend with a friend of mine. We slept in bunks, had campfires, ate in a mess hall, wore hiking boots and camo caps, took survival classes, shot guns and wandered around the woods with other women, learning woodsy stuff. We also took the Hunter's Safety Course together and learned lots about weapons, etc. An interest of mine? At the time, yes, but mostly I did it to prove I could and because Donna encouraged me to participate.

I've done lots of things with the encouragement of others and to prove I could; painted ceramics, folk art painted, bank tellered, sewn, worked at a law office, earned my certificate at Vo-Tech for data processing, and finally, my best thing, earning my bachelor's degree by age 50. So, I have a few successes under my belt, but I never achieved them without encouragement, either from friends, family or my husband.

Now, I'm starting a quest to do something I've never had a lot of success with in the past and I need an encourager, and because I've never yet mastered this thing, it seems to me the usual suspects just aren't what I need right now. I need a super encourager. I feel afflicted by this thing I want to do and, I'll tell you, I don't want to fail as I have in the past. So...where do I go, but to the Lord.

I'm on my adventure and I'm not so different from everyone else. I'll bet you have something that you've struggled with like learning a new language, perfecting your photography skills, writing better, public speaking, making your yard beautiful, learning how to swim. What's your 'thing?' Go ahead, name it in your own mind. The thing that has conquered you so far. That thing that nags the back of your mind--"Oh, man, I'd love to do THAT!" Ask our Father to help you master it. I am.

Psalm 10:17 You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry...

Lord, you know the desires of my heart. I trust you to be my encourager and my helper.

Suz