Encourage Each Other

Junior high is unkind to most and I didn't escape that. Big hair...bigger bangs...who-let-me-out-dressed-like-that clothing...and the ongoing struggle to outgrow my baby chub just didn't make for a fun time in life.

One week a boy who was as cursed by junior high as I was (except he didn't have big bangs) visited our Sunday School class. Mercifully I have forgotten the exact scenario and the words that accompanied it, but he said something to me in response to something I had said to the group....that was, well, jaw-dropping rude. No one had any idea how to handle it, because no one wanted to be rude to the visitor...but wow. It was OUT LOUD.

The next day I came home to a card in the mail - from my youth pastor's wife, the lovely Jody Hedlund. I still see it in my mind...cartoon drawn front, cut out in the shape of a heart, and inside, words that confirmed that I was special. Beneath the printed message, she wrote that she wanted me to know how wrong and how rude the visitor had been and that she didn't want me to doubt my beauty and worth in the eyes of the Lord.

Lo these many years later, I remember her card. I actually still have it.

I was in college when God called me to be an encourager...and I launched into it mainly through letter and card writing. Jody's card meant so much to me...and I wanted to pass that on to others.

After all, who doesn't love getting non-bill, non-junk mail that says Hey. You're special. I'm thinking about you!


For years, I made my own cards. Then I fell off the card-making bandwagon, first through the lack of initiative in the desert days and then through the busyness that is now my life.

But the time has come to send cards again. There are people surrounding me on all sides who just flat out hurt.

They need something that says they're loved.

For a while now, I've been reading Holley Gerth's blog posts and I come away saying, That's what I would have said if I'd have thought of it.

Holley also writes for Dayspring, and when I found out about their card link up posting day, I knew I wanted a pack of her cards, because she would say to my friends in need what I would say to them if I had the ability to be concise. (Which, you well know, I don't have...)

When they arrived, I ripped them open and read every one...and I had tears in my eyes because I needed those words myself.
"The Lord has given you all you need and made you all you need to be for victory."

"You're welcomed, held, cherished just as you are and encouraged to embrace all He has for you."

"And that thing that you're worried about? The One who made you is going to make it okay too."

So as much as I wish I could hang all these cards in my bathroom and look them over every day to be reminded of words of truth...

...I'm going to send them out. One by one...to friends who might feel like big-haired teenagers sitting across from mean-spirited boys with loud mouths. To people feeling like failures and losers.

Maybe you've been like me...too busy, too preoccupied...too whatever. But maybe someone needs a card? Check out Holley's line over at Dayspring and see what I mean!

** Dayspring provided my sample cards, but all the opinions are mine and are true! **