A Breath of Fresh Air

How many times have you been having what you would say is a flat out bad hair day, but then you  bumped into a friend who commented on "how pretty your hair looked?" How many times have you felt fat after trying to eat right and exercise for weeks, then someone's said to you with awe, "wow! you've really lost weight?!" How many times have you wondered if there's even any meaning to the madness of everyday life, wondered if there's even any point to what you're doing with your life, and someone [when you least expected it] thanked you for being a blessing in their life and for letting God use you?

This kind of breath-of-fresh-air encouragement probably happens to you more than you realize and now that I've mentioned it you're probably sitting there thinking of time after time that these little moments have blessed your heart, lifted your spirit, and maybe even helped you get through another day.

As a part of the challenge I accepted to record 1,000 gifts in my life after reading Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts (see earlier blog post), I resolved to make myself more sensitive to this kind of "breath-of-fresh-air-encouragement" because it was one of the first gifts I added to my list. Yesterday, a friend of mine that I don't get to see very often thanked me for letting God use my words here to bless others and I was completely blown away and humbled, because while of course I realize that people read my blog entries, I had no idea that God was using me to speak to others through it! How silly of me? Of course God is! He will use His children any time they are obedient to Him and do what He says (in my case, by writing down what He puts on my heart).

So, let this be an encouragement to you. There may be something in your life that you don't even think really matters- but I assure you, you are somebody's role  model. They are watching you and learning from you- so keep the faith, and remember that by being obedient to Christ, you are blessing someone else in a way that you didn't even know they needed to be blessed! How cool is that?!

Also, never miss an opportunity to be that breath-of-fresh-air for someone else. You have the ability to be the encouragement that someone else needs today, so why not make their day?

"God is using your present circumstances to make you more useful for later roles in His unfolding story." -Louie Giglio