Did you know that your heart gets hungry? Encouragement is one of your heart’s favorite foods and every heart is a hungry heart. We all get those twinges in our tummies telling us when it’s time to eat. In the same way our hearts ache for words of love and encouragement to get us through each day. So, to grow our marriages, we need to develop an ability to feed our spouse’s hungry hearts with action and words of encouragement. Let’s take a look at what that looks like…
The word encourage means to instill courage. This implies the giving or instilling of courage. Our spouse needs to overcome timidity or fear. What’s your spouse afraid of today, and what can you do? Or what can you say that will give him or her the strength and confidence he or she needs to face that challenge head on?
The second component of encouraging is to bring hope in discouraging times. Our mate needs to hear from us and see from us that we’re with them, and that God is with them. They need to see that light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Sometimes it’s encouraging for them if we roll up our sleeves and come alongside them and affirm them and help them work through their challenges. We need to be careful that they’re hearing this action is a genuine help and not as a statement of their incompetence.
And finally, we want to look at ways that we can honor and celebrate their character. We want to point out positive traits that we see in our mate’s life. This is more than just affirming what they’re doing, but acknowledges who they’re being. “I love your generous spirit“. “You show great kindness and patience“.So let’s look to see how the fruit of the spirit is being evidenced in your spouse’s life and let him or her know when you see glimpses emerging.
Hebrews 10:24 says, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on in true love and good deeds.” Let us encourage one another all the more.
