Giving and Receiving Flowers

            Everyone likes to get flowers, don’t we? During the past month, (who somebody decided should be Pastor Appreciation Month), we as a family have been incredibly blessed and humbled by the many words, acts ands gifts of appreciation showered on us by you our church family. Some of the gifts have literally been flowers, including several beautiful mums which we will plant as permanent reminders. While we have tremendously appreciated all these acts of kindness, there’s something deep inside me that makes it difficult to receive though. What is that I wonder?

            I’m becoming convinced that I need to become better at giving and receiving flowers, but mostly at giving them. Not only the literal blooming kind, but the more important figurative flowers, the words of encouragement and appreciation that too often go unsaid. If asked, I would certainly say that I deeply appreciate those close to me, my family, co-workers in the church, friends and all those who make my life rich. But do I tell them enough? I think likely not. Maybe if I better cultivated the habit of expressing the gratefulness I feel to others, I would find it easier to be on the receiving end then too.

            Paul shows us in 2 Thessalonians 2:16 and17 that encouragement is something that we receive by God’s grace that we see at work in Jesus. He says, “May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.”

The word encourage literally means heart. So when we receive encouragement, we “receive heart.” When we encourage someone else, we “give them heart.” Encouragement is a gift of heart, giving the ability to continue through life in spite of obstacles. It adds strength when someone is feeling weak. It gives the ability to keep going when we feel as if we can’t anymore.

Do you know anyone in your life that could use encouragement? Maybe it is your spouse, maybe a friend or co-worker, maybe an employee that works hard for you but doesn’t know you notice. I have the feeling, (tell me if I’m wrong), that we could all think of someone with whom we are long overdue to give the gift of encouragement.

Too often, we wait too long to give those flowers of encouragement until they’ve moved out of our life through relocation or death. At that point they don’t have the same benefit for the person. Let’s remember to give each other “flowers” often, not waiting until it is too late to give them heart, to encourage them by doing so. Maybe if we give them more often, we may receive them better when others give them to us.

May we continue to build one another up by our words and actions so that together we become that witnessing body of God’s grace to the world in which we live.

Pastor Carl