Have you recently reflected on the words you have spoken to others or over yourself? When was the last time that you genuinely spoke words of encouragement or have given impactful advice to someone else? Whether we realize it or not, the words we use carry meaning and have the ability to produce life or death in someone’s life or our own. In today’s blog I am going to share my personal experience of a time someone spoke encouragement over me, how I recently have spoken encouragement into someone else’s life, and what I try to do daily to impact other people.
This past week I had a lighter week of training to help my body recover from the last three weeks of heavy half marathon training. Saturday’s are always my long run and my coach had me do six miles this past Saturday. The first three miles were easy and half way into the run she had me do a few intervals of :30 fast and 2 minutes of easy running. She didn’t give me any paces to hit for both the :30 fast and the 2 minutes of easy. I ended up running around 6’30 average pace on the :30 fast, which I was super excited about because I was going off of effort and I did feel very fast as I was running the intervals. After sending her over my data she texted me back great work and also encouraged me by saying, “If you can do that, there’s no telling what you could do in a couple of years.” It wasn’t lengthy but the words she chose meant the world to me and truly brought me so much joy. I don’t share this to boast about myself, but to tell my personal experience of how much happiness her words brought me. Also her words are impacting my actions by giving me the drive to continue to work hard and also being an encouraging person for someone else to experience the same uplifting feeling.
The following day Jason and I went to church and we got to speak to a couple who recently got engaged. Whenever I get the chance to speak to someone who get’s engaged I always want to speak life and encouraging words about marriage. Yes, marriage will be challenging at times as it is two sinful people who are joined together, but overall marriage is one of the best gifts and greatest joy of my life. While we were finishing up the conversation, the guy we were speaking to genuinely thanked me for speaking encouraging words about marriage. He went on to say a lot of the people he has spoken with have talked down on marriage. After our conversation, I was filled with so much joy by seeing how encouraged and uplifted he looked and sounded after speaking positive, hopeful, and kind words into this new journey he gets to start.
To end, I want to write about what I try to do daily to refocus and remember how I can make an impact on other people’s lives. Every morning I try to start my day with writing down my prayers and thoughts. Almost every time I humbly ask God to help me be an encouragement to whoever I come into contact with that day. I am definitely not perfect and there have been handful of days that I know I could have done a better job of being a positive light for the people around me. But overall I definitely know I have grown in this area. Secondly, reading the bible reminds me of what I am called to do and how to act while living on this earth. And not only that, but it fills me up by providing me hope, peace, and joy. So whatever I receive from scripture that day, it stays with me bringing fulfillment to my soul which helps me hopefully be a light in other people’s lives. Lastly, we all remember the saying our parents and teachers would tell us growing up, “treat other people the way you want to be treated.” When this thought comes to mind I pick a few times where people have shown up for me and have made me feel loved, supported, and cared for. I try to remember how I felt after someone else spoke kind, positive, or loving words to me. I also think of a few instances where people have treated me unkind or have made me feel less then. By doing this, I am motivated by the people who have bettered my life and it also gives me the desire to replicate the feeling I received to the people I interact with day to day.
I am going to leave you with a few bible verses that speak about words and the positive or negative impact they can make on people. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you feel inspired to uplift and bring joy into the people you live your life with!
-Shara
Proverbs 16:24, “Kind words are like honey— they cheer you up and make you feel strong.”
Proverbs 18:21, “Words can bring death or life! Talk too much, and you will eat everything you say.”
Proverbs 12:18, “The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”
Ephesians 4:29, “Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.”