Posts

Showing posts from September 11, 2009
Get This Calendar...

Are You an Enabler or Encourager?

"Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up." (I Thess. 5:11 NIV) Friend To Friend I have a friend who was known to constantly complain. She whined about her job, moaned about her husband and children, was bitter about the way her parents raised her, and was unhappy with life in general. Seemingly unable, or unwilling to stop the defeatism and negativity that surround her, her life was miserable. I would listen, murmuring platitudes, and sighing with her over her difficult life. This scenario played itself out over and over, week after week, month after month. Then one day, God touched my heart and showed me this was not the way to reach her, to help her. I was enabling her negative behavior by just listening and nodding, and not encouraging the positive perspective she so desperately needed. Jeremiah 29:11 teaches us that we have a "hope and future". I was not reminding her of that. I realized that my behavior and attitude had to change i