Listen up

“We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.”
― E.E. Cummings

I hijacked this quote from a friend, but it was just too good not to.  These words describe me to a tee.  I like words. A lot.  I am a words nerd.  My most prominent way of expressing my opinion/thoughts is by using words (written words).   (I am also a tidbit on the chicken side- that's when I revert to less talk, more writing. No confrontation over here) When I read this quote, I felt a super surreal sense of peace.  I thought about it in a couple different ways.  When I first read it, I was actually feeling thankful.  Very thankful.  Just recently, I have been thinking about how lucky I am to have very encouraging people in my life.  I mean it.  I lack self confidence in certain departments.  Even if I know that I could possibly be 1% good at something, there is a good chance that I will avoid it.  Like taking pictures or writing.  I love them both, but I'm scared of them both.  This may come as a shocker, but I am sometimes my own worst enemy.  Especially when it comes to hobbies that I enjoy.  I'm pretty skilled at shutting myself down.  (Working on that one).  Luckily, I have good defense mechanisms that happen to work in my favor 99% of the time, so you may not know that:)

Just in the last week I have been encouraged by people in so many ways.  People that I don't normally converse with, totally speaking into my life- at just the right time.  They probably had no idea what they were doing, but all this month I've been a little bit of a doubting Thomas of sorts and their conversations have actually kind of inspired me.   Then there are the people/friends/family that I talk to on a daily basis, encouraging me.  Sometimes, for me at least, it takes somebody else confirming something for me to realize it.  They probably do not even know that they are doing it, but it's happening nonetheless.  I am actually kind of flabbergasted at how encouraging/cool/awesome some people are.  Encouraging me does not help them in the least, yet they do it anyway.  I love relationships for one main reason.  Walking along side each other.  Doing life together.  My faith has grown so much from having encouragers that I call my friends.  People that are there.  Come hell or high water.  I like those kinds of people:)  I pray that I will be one of those people. 

Lastly, it made me realize that I want to be an encourager.  I want to encourage people in their gifts.  Gifts that they know they have and gifts that they don't even see.  Kids, adults, old people.  I like them all.  Everyone needs to know that they are gifted and that they are valuable.  I have been really blessed to have people encourage me in gifts that I didn't even know that I had.  So cool.  I pray that I will be able to do that. 

Happy Monday People.

Prinsass.