Florence Littauer’s book Silver Boxes is about unexpected little gifts of encouragement you give to others. She likens encouragement to a box wrapped in silver with a lovely bow on top. I love this analogy.
Encouragement is so important because it goes straight to the heart of a person. In fact in Latin “en” means “put into” and “cor” means “the heart.” Put into the heart! I’ve heard it said that one word of encouragement during a failure is worth more than a 100 words of praise during a success.
We live in an ultra busy, rat race society. Giving encouragement to others falls way down at the bottom of our to-do list, if it makes the list at all. Yet, God himself is the great encourager (Psalm 10:17, Romans 15:5, 2 Thessalonians 2:16, 17) with the Bible being the most encouraging book ever written. God wishes for us to comfort, exhort, and encourage one another as well (I Thessalonians 4:18; 5:11: Hebrews 3:13).
Our dog eat dog world is filled with unrealistic expectations. Satan uses this to tear us down, make us feel unimportant and unappreciated, or like we don’t belong. Encouragers are Christ’s representatives here on earth. Their mission is to “put into the heart” of people the thought that they are appreciated and someone cares.
Give a little “silver box” gift of encouragement to someone today. They will be uplifted and so will you!
