Encouragement- Be a Cheerleader!

Summer break is getting start early! WhooHoo!!

Now, if the weather and COVID-19 will only cooperate, the kids and I can get going on our favorite summer activity….SWIMMING!

We swim for fun every summer, but a few years ago, we tried our first attempt at an organized sport. I unconsciously (or maybe consciously) picked the swim team because I was on the swim team when I was a kid. Coincidently, my kiddos are starting at the same age as I did- the summer after 4th grade.

While they were swimming, I cheered for them to keep going, kick hard, and use their arms.

Almost immediately, I had a flashback to my 10 year old summer…..

Learning to swim wasn’t the easiest thing for me. I was NOT athletic. I was an ‘indoor girl’, you see, so, swimming 50 yards was a big challenge. I had to touch the floor of the pool many times, gasping, struggling to keep going just to make it to the other end. Even in the struggle, she knew I needed this. In my little world in which most things came easy, she knew I needed to learn how to work hard at something.

The thing I remember most clearly in my flashback was my mother cheering for me.

During those meets, in the honorable mention lane, I would hear her yelling and cheering for me all the way down the pool, “You can do it! Keep going!” Every. Single. Week.

I wasn’t winning any races, that’s for sure. It took a few more summers until I could actually swim well enough to earn some real ribbons. But more than anything else, I remember Momma cheering me on to the end of the race.

She’s never stopped either. She’s always been my Cheerleader.

Throughout school, she’s cheered for better grades, piano recitals, and choir performances. She cheered for me when I got my first ‘real’ job at the shoe store. She definitely cheered when I graduated high school and college.

Her cheering took a on a different look as a I got older.

She didn’t need to clap and holler to keep me going (at least not out loud). I could always ask her to cook a dish or pick up something at the store on her way to an event. Her quiet presence and support have always spoken volumes. She’s always had my back.

These memories are what come flooding back to me now that I am at the pool cheering for my own kids. I hope I can be the cheerleader to them that she was is to me.

Be a Cheerleader!

Now that life is starting to open back up, we are gathering at churches, getting in our small groups, and trying to get back to connecting with each other, we need to remember what really is essential as followers of Christ.

We must continue to stop the spread of discouragement!

We’ve got to be in the business of encouraging people!

Being a cheerleader in someone else’s life is vital to keeping us, our families, and our church family healthy.

What can you do to be an encourager to the people around you?

Simple acts of kindness and thoughtful words of affirmation can do wonders to brighten someone’s day or even to keep them from circling the drain of despair.

Your encouragement is powerful!

So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.            1 Thessalonians 5:11

Let’s do something fun!

Would you join me in the WoW Encouragement Challenge?

Call, text, or video chat someone. Write a note or send a card. Post something on Facebook. Whatever you can think of, and then, share it on the Women of the Way TN page. Show me what you’re doing to encourage someone.

And….don’t just encourage the friends you would normally talk to anyway. No! Find friends, relatives, and co-workers that you don’t see often or rarely talk to them. Get creative! Don’t spend any money (unless you just want to). Just be thoughtful and encouraging!

We’re doing this challenge for the rest of May! Join me here.

Let’s get intentional about being Cheerleaders for others.

Let’s stop the spread of discouragement!

Let’s encourage each other and build each other up!

~Amy