Key Bible Verse: I have sent him on this special trip to let you know how we are doing and to encourage you (Colossians 4:8). Bonus Reading: Acts 20:1-3

Sister Helen Mrosia writes: In an earlier grade, I'd taped Mark's mouth shut for talking too much in class. Now he was one of my students in junior high math.

We'd worked hard on a new concept; by Friday the students were getting cranky. So, for a break, I asked them to write the nicest thing they could about each other student, and hand it in. I compiled the results for each student and, on Monday, gave out the lists.

Several years later, Mark was killed in Vietnam. After the funeral, most of his former classmates headed with his parents and me to Chuck's farmhouse for lunch. Mark's father took a wallet out of his pocket. "They found this on Mark when he was killed," he said. He carefully removed a folded, refolded, and taped paper—the one on which I'd listed the good things Mark's classmates had said about him.

Charlie smiled sheepishly and said, "I keep my list in my desk drawer."

Chuck's wife said, "Chuck put his in our wedding album."

"I have mine, too," Marilyn said. "In my diary."

Vicky reached into her pocketbook and displayed her frazzled list.

Clearly, the kids in that class treasured that affirmation.

—John Trent in Choosing to Live the Blessing

My Response: How could I harness the power of an encouraging word today?

Thought to Apply: People have a way of becoming what you encourage them to be—not what you nag them to be.—SCUDDER PARKER (speaker)

Adapted from Choosing to Live the Blessing (New Leaf, 1997) by permission.

Prayer for the Week

Lord, help me to be a true encourager to someone around me who needs a lift.

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