Affirming Gifts
Psalm 139:14 (New Living Translation)
New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers.
14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
Sometimes it seems that our gifts don't exist for us until someone else acknowledges and affirms them. It is as if others need to discover them before we can do so.
We have a greater need for affirmation and encouragement than we realize. I remember giving a presentation and needing so badly to hear the words, "Well done." I had no way of knowing if the message God gave me to deliver had reached its mark until I heard someone mention it later in the day.
As a result of realizing my own neediness, I forced myself out of it to affirm three other people who had also made presentations. I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was, to find them equally insecure. They responded with the question, "Do you think it went well?"
We tend to think that others know how well they did--but they--and we ourselves, never do. Affirmation, a generation or so back, used to be sparingly meted out, lest it create pride. It doesn't. It recognizes a gift. In itself, that is a great gift.
I want to be more intentional in refocusing my attention towards others--to remember to notice other's gifts and affirm them daily.
New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers.
14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
Sometimes it seems that our gifts don't exist for us until someone else acknowledges and affirms them. It is as if others need to discover them before we can do so.
We have a greater need for affirmation and encouragement than we realize. I remember giving a presentation and needing so badly to hear the words, "Well done." I had no way of knowing if the message God gave me to deliver had reached its mark until I heard someone mention it later in the day.
As a result of realizing my own neediness, I forced myself out of it to affirm three other people who had also made presentations. I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was, to find them equally insecure. They responded with the question, "Do you think it went well?"
We tend to think that others know how well they did--but they--and we ourselves, never do. Affirmation, a generation or so back, used to be sparingly meted out, lest it create pride. It doesn't. It recognizes a gift. In itself, that is a great gift.
I want to be more intentional in refocusing my attention towards others--to remember to notice other's gifts and affirm them daily.
Comments
I agree. If someone whom we know (pastor, spouse, sibling, parent, friend) does something that affects us in a positive way it can make our entire day. We as Christians ought to be constantly encouraging one another daily (like what I'm doing now for instance). On the flip side, there are many men in prison whose fathers told them that they wouldn't add up to anything. How sad and tragic. Encourage and pray one for another!