Lessons From The Geese....Part IV

OK, I must admit that this lesson from the geese is my favorite. I can just see us all standing behind one another saying "HONK, HONK!!"

Fact: The geese flying in formation honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.

Lesson: We need to make sure our honking is encouraging. In groups where there is encouragement, the production is much greater. The power of encouragement (to stand by one's heart or core values and encourage thte heart and core of others) is the quality of honking we seek. We need to make sure our honking is encouraging and not DIScouraging.

How many times have you put your heart and soul into some work and NO ONE has said what a wonderful job you've done or said thank you for working so hard to make sure they had a nice time? Now, I know that we are working for the LORD and we're not supposed to be looking for thanks from man or a pat on the back. Our reward comes later. But as a human, our flesh gets its feelings hurt and we begin to feel that what we've done was not appreciated by others. Again, that's not the purpose of doing a work, but at least we know what it feels like and it's always nice to get that encouraging word from someone.

So keep that in mind the next time you go to a ladies fellowship or a special service and make sure you "honk" your encouragement towards the person that has put their time and talent into the event. Don't just say, "Yeah, I had a good time...See ya, Sunday." Give them a hug and say, "You know, that was a really good meeting, I appreciate all the time you spent working on it for us." Those are words are encouragement. Especially when it's their first time working on something. A little "honking" at them will help them get that little extra boost to do something else. When a word of apprecitaion goes unsaid, discouragement can set in.

The next time you want to encouragement someone just go up behind them and say, "HONK, HONK!"

"The LORD GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary..."

Isaiah 50:4