Encouraging Potential

Encouraging Potential

Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.

Ephesians 4:29

One of my dear friends once told me how as a child she would usually get Cs in school. Her mother always said that Cs were good enough. My friend believed her mother’s words and continued to get Cs until an eighth-grade teacher told her, “You know, you’re really an A student. I know you get Cs, but you are smart enough to be getting As.”

This teacher’s comment had a profound impact on her, opening the doors of possibility in her own mind for her to believe she actually could do better. From that point on, she always got As in school. All it took was someone who was willing to tell her that she was actually capable of achieving more and truly believed that she could.

Why is it often so much easier to see the potential in others than it is to see it in ourselves? Sometimes a little push of encouragement from someone else is just what we need in order to believe that we can accomplish the task before us or to see a possibility we hadn’t seen before.

We are instructed to share good and helpful words that will encourage those who hear them, even though we may never know the impact our words will have. I’m sure that teacher didn’t realize the profound impact she would have on my friend and how her words would completely change the trajectory of her education and life. When we see opportunities to share words of encouragement with someone else, we should speak up willingly, trusting that God will use our words to accomplish his purposes.

Has someone spoken encouraging words to you that have totally changed the course of your life? Ask God to show you how he might want you to encourage someone else in a big way.

—Kendra

— Today’s Act of Kindness —

Encourage someone who has been struggling lately, and be sure to point out the potential you see in them.