Encouragement

So many times in the past few weeks I had come home to hear a message of encouragement on my answering machine: "Thinking of you;" "I love you". Day after day, when hysteria and raw emotions were my constant companions I found the incredible support and concern of friends every time I needed someone.
Encouragement has never filled a flat tire. Encouragement has never made a car payment, nor fixed a broken washing machine. but encouragement from another gives us the strength to do what we feel we cannot do, hold on when we feel we cannot hold on, and try what we might not dare to try.
Encouragement doesn't sound like much, but it's everything. Send some encouragement today. You'll be part of someone's memories for a long, long time.
Written by: Sharon Mahoe

God's Words on the matter:

But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.
Psalm 86: 15

God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.
1 Corinth. 1:9

An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up.
Proverbs 12:25

Beauty

We all have imperfections. We live in an imperfect world. Our created purpose is to let God's light shine through every facet of our being, expressing his colors and beauty through us in ways no one else can.
If you look at a ring under the microscope every day and become intimately familiar with every flaw, you might be embarrassed by it. but that is not how God meant the beauty of diamonds to be seen. The beauty of a diamond is seen when someone holds it up in the sunlight and everyone can see it sparkle.
We are created to shine with the light of God's creative genius. When you appreciate yourself in all your uniqueness, you will dare to hold your life up to the light. You will dare to live out the beauty you were created to express....cleaned and polished with the forgiveness of God.
Written by Connie Neal

God's Word:

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be prasied.
Psalm 31:30

God has made everything beautiful in its time.
Ecclesiastes 3:11

Accepting Others

Some people have a way of making themselves at home. They don't ring the front doorbell. They slip in the back. They don't care if there's clutter on the floor. they'll either help you pick it up, or step over it to pour you each a cup of coffee.
How do these people do it? Perhaps the key to the back door of our hearts is simply acceptance--the kind of love that would just as soon hug you in a tattered bathrobe as in your Sunday Best.
Such people leave behind their expectations of how others should be and what they should be. To them, every person is buried treasure to be discovered and enjoyed. Differences are a source of delight. Evaluations, judgments and makeovers are not their job. Loving acceptance is.
When such a person takes me into her heart, it is certain that she cannot stay long our of mine.

Written by Susan Lenzkes

God's Words:
Accept one another, then just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring prasie to God.
Romans 15:7

You have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.
Colossians 2:10

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28

Beginning to Blog

I wanted to start a blog, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to talk about. Soooo, I am going to start out by just blogging a daily devotion.