Elizabeth Harrison wrote, “Those who are lifting the world upward and onward are those who encourage more than criticize.” Hi, I’m Tom Ellsworth from Sherwood Oaks Christian Church with a minute message.
Discouragement hides in the shadows just waiting to destroy us. And there are multiple shadows of discouragement all around us – the tragic mass shooting in Las Vegas last week reminds us again that life in a broken world is full of disheartening pain and sorrow. But that ever-present pain also reminds us of the deep need for encouragement at every turn. Encouragement is like sunlight that dispels the shadows, or that opens the bloom on a closed-up flower or that strikes a prism with a shower of color. Encouragement brightens a shadowy world.
In a Peanuts comic strip Linus makes this observation about his older, critical sister Lucy, “Big sisters are the crab grass in the lawn of life.” Do you know anyone like Lucy, sowing discouragement in life? I don’t know about you, but I try to get rid of the crabgrass in my yard. Maybe we ought to do the same thing in our vocabulary and behavior. God challenges us to lift others upward and onward. Don’t be a critic; cast your light in the shadows around you and encourage someone today.