Everyone needs encouragement, even if they don’t look like it or won’t admit it. There’s:

Family members— Our spouse; kids; parents; siblings; cousins; aunt; uncles; nieces; nephews; grandparents; grandchildren; in-laws (yeah, them too!)…

People close and/or significant to you– Our friend; neighbor; someone at church; your pastor; your pastor’s wife; someone in your small group; teacher/professor…

Folks at work– Our co-worker; boss; subordinate; team-leader; an administrative assistant; another staff-person in a meeting; a maintenance person; C-suite executives (hey, you might actually see them!)…

People we meet “randomly”— While out on a walk; someone else stuck in a waiting room with you (redeems the time!); at a park; in a check-out line…

Those who serve and help us in daily life– Our server at a restaurant; salesclerk; receptionist; medical professional (doctor, dentist– the dentist will really be glad we’re not treating him/her like our executioner!)…

Public servants– A police officer (they really need it these days!); mail carrier; UPS/Fed-Ex delivery-person (your dog can help you with this if it’s friendly 🙂 ); construction worker (even on the highway, when they’re blocking part of the road!); politicians (yes, they need it too!)…

AND— those who annoy us, “get under our skin”, even criticize us, and act like enemies! Lk. 6:27 tells us, “Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you”. One helpful motivator for this is realizing WE may be that annoying person to someone else!

For example, have you ever had a noisy neighbor?  The kind who throws loud parties ‘til past midnight, outdoors in summer time?  Or the ones with barking dogs they leave out all hours and don’t control? (Hopefully neither of these are you!).

We’ve had such neighbors, and they were honestly not our favorite people. But the Bible tells us to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev.19:18; Mat.22:39).  Encouragement demonstrates love.  So I’ve done it—both verbally and non-verbally—to the point where…

~It surprised them— (“What? I thought she considered us a pain in the posterior!”)

~It improved the relationship—my change of attitude and expression toward them (smiling instead of looking disgusted) caused their attitude to change (“Hey, if she thinks we’re likable, we can like her back!”)

~It opened up channels of friendly communication—“Uh, it’s almost midnight…” – they kindly turned the music down (and the police could go catch criminals instead of being called on our neighbors!).

~It made me a better representative of the Christian faith—this is huge!  If you’re a Jesus-follower reading this, we don’t want to tell people “God loves you!”, when they see we obviously don’t! If you’re one of those people who has a bad impression of Jesus-followers because of this, my apologies for faulty representation of Him!

Now– if we can encourage “enemies” and annoying people, everyone else should be easy in comparison!

Try it– You’ll be the most encouraged in the process!

Also— please comment here so the rest of us can see how it’s worked for you 🙂