Wondrous Wednesday - Encouraging Words

I know I tend to hit this topic a lot - but I can't help but keep coming back to it when I so vividly see the wondrous results.  

My husband and I were in line to check-out at Walmart the other day.  Up ahead I noticed that the cashier didn't seem to be friendly at all and looked almost aggravated to be there.  We weren't the happiest to be fighting yet another pre-snow-storm crowd either.  But as we grew more near the cashier, I took notice of her countenance and her routine way of getting people through her line.  I realized that her mind was not at all on the customers, but on some problem or some issue elsewhere.  When our turn came, she mechanically greeted us, barely looking our way.  But when she did, I noticed her eyes.  They were a deep blue-green and somewhere deep under the surface, there was a twinkle - a sparkle to them.  "You have the most beautiful eyes!"  I said without thinking.

The cashier literally stopped what she was doing and looked at us like she was seeing us for the first time.  I smiled in the hope that she wouldn't think I was some weirdo or something.  She relaxed and smiled back and said, "Thank you.  My son's eyes are like mine, but my daughter's are like my husband's."  And all of a sudden, she opened up and shared that her kids were sick and she hated to be away from them but she had to work.  We talked for a bit about being parents and we left her promising to pray for her children.  She looked relieved and thanked us for our prayers.

The Lord used that to remind me the power of encouraging words.  We live in such a negative society that's ruled by whatever emotion is in the moment.  If we could learn to step back out of our busyness and out of the emotion of the moment and find a simple word of encouragement to bring to a person or a situation, it could possibly change everything.  Won't you join me in sharing positive words of encouragement to those you meet?

And on this 'Wondrous Wednesday', I want to encourage you with a few positive, encouraging words that God says about you:

He loves you with an everlasting love - Jer. 31:3

He will never leave you - Deuteronomy 31:8

You are the apple of His eye - Ps. 17:8

He holds your hand - Isaiah 41:13

He rejoices over you - Isaiah 62:5

You bring Him joy - Luke 10:21

You make Him sing - Zep. 3:17

1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NIV)
Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.