Tell Them. Tell Them Now.

Have you ever been talking with someone and given them a compliment, some words of encouragement, or simply acknowledged and affirmed what others have told you about that person only to find the recipient blush, deny your accusations (though positive they are), or exclaim that no one has ever told them that so it must not be true?  This recently happened to me with one of my friends and it got me to thinking: how many times have i noticed something about someone (positive) yet kept silent, refrained from stating out loud to that person just what i had come across?  Sadly, i feel that more often than not i keep these positive little nuggets to myself, but oh how quick i am to spout off about someone's downfalls!  Blast, if only i could take James' words to heart and tame my tongue!  Now i'm not saying if i see something in a person's life that defiles them i am going to simply stay silent, but should i not also be intentional about acting out 1 Thessalonians 5:11, "Continue to encourage each other and build each other up just as you are doing now." 

You see, life is short.  And for this very reason we must proclaim the good we see in each other to each other.  For if we don't, who will?  The way i see it, we as Christians know we are not good in and of ourselves, but because of the Holy Spirit.  This being said and acknowledged, we also forget that the Holy Spirit empowers us to be more than we could be on our own, and therefore shine God's light into this dark world.  But because we are aware of the darkness of our hearts, we can forget about the Light that has been placed in us.  This is where we, as brothers and sisters in Christ, need to acknowledge that Light when we see it.  As we go about living life together we need to show each other the beauty we see in each other's actions, lifestyles, attitudes, and hearts.  Maybe we wouldn't feel so awkward about compliments if they weren't so foreign in our day-to-day lives.

I am currently reading through a book Elisabeth Elliot wrote on her personal perceptions of her life called All That Was Ever Ours.  There is a chapter titled: Truth Telling and at one point it speaks of the saying: "the truth often hurts."  "But there is a truth that does not hurt--truth which encourages and surprises with delight and gratitude."  She writes on about examples of people who probably aren't acknowledged for their breakthroughs with students, physical beauty never mentioned, and personal circumstances Mrs. Elliot has experienced.  What was most compelling to me, so much so that i put down the book and ran upstairs to get my computer to write this post, was the last two sentences that simply read, "Tell them.  Tell them now." 

We often times proclaim we should "tell it like it is," but how many actually do that in an encouraging nature?  To be honest when that is said i think of being harsh or saying what everyone is thinking, but too afraid to say.  What if "telling it like it is" were something we did as a source of encouragement.  Calling people out on the good we see in them in hopes that one day their eyes will be opened to it as well.  Imagine what the world would see if we, as the Church, became fervent about encouraging each other, building each other up, and vocalizing the Light we see in one another.  i would like to think that those in our day-to-day lives would see a difference in us, begin to wonder just what that difference was, be compelled to ask us, bringing about one of those "when will He" moments (<--that's a reference to a previous blog...feel free to look to previous posts to get the drift of that one).

If you see the Light in someone, if you catch them doing good: Tell them.  Tell them now.  And watch them squirm because, let's be honest, it's something we as a generation are not use to.  Let's get each other use to it!