Encouraging

I like to encourage people. Sometimes I'm not very good at it, but I like it. People seem to appreciate it and it brings a smile to their faces. Barnabas is one of those guys in the New Testament I'd like to know. In college, we were given nicknames because of certain characteristics or even our names. I was called Whitey (since my last name is White. It's fun to hear my son being called the same thing. I was also called Jim Dandy). We had another guy in our club we called Whitey because he had really blond hair. Others you call Shorty because they are vertically challenged. You get the picture. Barnabas was called Son of Encouragement. It's obvious that he was an encourager because you see it happen with Paul, John Mark, and others. I like Barnabas.
In our conversations with each other, I think we ought to encourage more. Instead we tend to gossip, tell the latest, you know the routine. We could even invoke what Paul said in Philippians 4:8: Finally, brothers, whatever is true." That seems to be the criterion for telling something. Whether it's hateful or hurtful, we'll say, "But it's true!" Read on. "...whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. (Emphasis mine) Let's not stop at true, let's continue with noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. That'strue encouragement. Have a great day. JW