Encouragement

Sorry to go on about things medical, but it occurred to me today that what we say is so important and we must be careful to be encouraging rather than judgemental or negative. I have had some experience of this lately in some of the treatments I have had to undergo.

I was happy to accept that what the doctors had asked for me to have was necessary and just getting on with it. I don’t like medicines at all as they often have both positive and negative affects on the body, but sometimes it is essential that we take them to get better. I was about to have a course of intravenous antibiotics when a nurse said to me that someone had had a negative reaction to this particular drug the day before. She had no real reason to tell me that as I had just asked how long the drip would take and all I wanted was the timing. This upset me because then I started to think about whether I would also have a negative reaction. I said to the nurse that I had received the same drug the day before but it all went well and instead of reassuring me, she said that although sometimes they go well you can still get a reaction from them! The encouragement and reassurance I wanted wasn’t given and I ended up being nervous about the whole process.

We all need encouragement sometimes. We can seem brave and confident but under the surface, many of us may feel completely differently to how we appear. We worry and fret about some things and it is always best to treat someone as if they do need to be reassured even if they seem okay, whatever the situation. Be encouraging as a matter of course even if you feel a bit discouraged about a situation yourself. By being positive, you can turn an unpleasant situation into a more than bearable one.

There are many passages in the Bible about us encouraging each other, and I have copied one below.

God bless, and always look to God when you feel anxious or alone,

Proverbs 12:21

Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.