Each Summer our family would load up the family station wagon and head out on vacation. It is one of our family values that there are many lessons that can be learned while riding with your family in a car across this great land of ours! There are lessons in tolerance, patience, kindness, anger, warfare tactics, medical preparedness, comedy, rest, roadside dining, Americana, respect, music, teamwork, and that is to just name a few. We would ride down the road singing together…boy that was a choir performance that I was glad wasn’t recorded.
One trip in particular, we loaded up and headed out to the Rocky Mountains. We sang Home on the Range until we were sick of that song. But I loved it. My grandparents were with us on this trip and this is where I learned my love of fishing for rainbow trout. My grandfather loved to fish. He made it his mission to pass that down to me and my brother. We would wake up, get dressed and go get the rods, a stringer and bottle of salmon eggs and head out to catch our dinner. We would try to stay as close to my papaw as possible to learn what he knew about the rainbow trout. He would encourage us to find our own hole and fish it. While sitting on a log watching our lines, he would talk to me. You know, things that were a variety of topics. Just passing time together. Fishing. He taught me how to unhook a fish and then put it on a stringer. He taught me how to clean the fish, bread it, and fry it up for the family dinner. Those were the best fish I have ever eaten! The greatest lesson I learned those days was the lesson of encouragement.
The Range
My grandfather was an encourager. He would get frustrated at times while I was wearing out his nerves with questions. However, he never once didn’t answer. He never once seemed as if he didn’t enjoy the time fishing. He never once told me to shut my pie hole! What I saw modeled that day was someone who had the love of Christ in them that also was willing to endure incredible amounts of questions fired at a rapid pace when we were supposed to be quiet…and fish! Paul said it this way in 1 Thessalonians 5:11,
So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.
He built me up. I guess now, I have kind of taken this task to hand. My youngest daughter plays softball. She is on a team that plays some tournaments from time to time. Depending upon the tournament, we can either be the best team or we could be the middle of the pack or the team that is two and out. This past weekend, we were in a tournament and made it to the Final Four teams. At that point, we made our exit. We finished 4th Place and really did it with flair. We played about as poorly as we could have. Of course, the previous 5 games didn’t hurt our effort…they were tired and hot. I was talking with another parent and this particular parent was telling me how they were kind of disappointed in their daughter’s play for the tournament. Keep in mind that these girls are 7-8 year olds. I made the statement,
We can take this down two roads with our girls. One we can tell them we are disappointed in their play or, we can tell them that they should be proud they finished 4th place in a tournament with good teams. We can crush their spirit after they just played 6 games and gave all they had or we can tell them how proud we are of them for doing their best at all times. I am going to focus on the positives rather than the inconsistencies.
Fortunately, this parent agreed and I actually heard them saying some of the same things we had just talked about to their daughter. It was a great moment and the smile on their daughter’s face was irreplaceable.
This same attitude of building up one another was on display on my son’s baseball team. This is Cole’s first season of playing baseball. While he has a great time playing, he still is learning the game. Cole got an incredible hit the other night in his game. It was a double to the gap and yes, this an unashamed bragging on my kid moment. It was a hit so hard, that he won the honors of receiving a game ball at the end of the game. Until this night, all he had been doing is striking out, walking or getting hit by a pitch…however, this night…it all clicked. You be the judge as to what it did for him…
One for the Gapper
What would happen if we all would begin to build each other up in life rather than focus on the negative? What would happen if our life song would be Home on the Range…where never is heard a discouraging word and the skies are not cloudy all day? What would you feel like if someone had something nice to say to you? How would someone else respond if you said something encouraging to them? Will you make it a point to be an encourager today, this week, this month? Will you give someone a Daniel 10:19 moment this week?
“Don’t be afraid,” he said, “for you are very precious to God. Peace! Be encouraged! Be strong!” As he spoke these words to me, I suddenly felt stronger and said to him, “Please speak to me, my lord, for you have strengthened me.”
oneguyseyes 