Pearls

My husband got me a strand of pearls not long ago. Then 2 weeks ago I went shopping and found a real bargain at Old Navy, a pretty blue shirt for 3 bucks. I wore them together to the office.

"Kari!" everyone kept saying, "what pretty pearls!"

I found myself answering "Pearls? But what about my shirt, is my shirt cute?"

The pearls were old - the shirt was the thing I wanted poeple to notice, and they weren't noticing. There was something that stood out more.

I can be this way with spiritual encouragement too. Someone will comment on how I encourage others and, though I thank them, think inwardly 'no one's noticing my prayerfulness lately...'. Someone will encourage me about how I love my husband and I'll think "will anyone ever notice the humility I've been praying for?"

This is such a silly attitude to have. I'm so consumed with waiting for the encouragement I wish I was getting that I sometimes totally disreguarding the encouragement I am getting.

There are a couple of pitfalls here, the first being condemnation. If I don't pay attention to the evidences of grace others point out in my life, chances are I won't see them myself. Some days all I can see is my sin, so I need to heed the encouragement brought to me by godly friends and family so I can be built in faith that God is working in my life. Otherwise I might not catch it myself. Beyond that, I could be quenching the spirit in others. They are only encoruaging me because the holy spirit helped them see evidences of grace in me and prompted them to share for my edification. If I disreguard their encouragement, I'm belittling their observation, discouraging them from exercising the gift of encouragement in the future (with me at least), keeping myself from being built up by the church, and ultimately robbing God of the glory that should be his if I'd say "why thank you! It's all because of grace".

I think I got it by the end of the day - I started thanking people for their complements on my pearls - but it was always with the little tag "Thanks! They're from my husband! Isn't he wonderful?" I hope I can do the same with encouragement. "Thanks! That's from my savior! Isn't he wonderful?"