Tuesday, December 14, 2021 Encouraging Words

I have recently written about my experience with working at the State 4-H Office when I was in college. One of the stories I didn’t tell was about the time I did a copy job using color paper and forgot to put the white paper back in the copier. One of the secretaries, Lee, went to go do a copy job and came out fuming about people leaving color paper in the copier, ruining her work and wasting her time. Lee was a very intimidating older woman and I went all hot and cold with the realization that I was the culprit. In spite of fearing her response, I went over to her desk, admitted that I was the one who left the wrong paper in the machine, apologized, and volunteered to re-do the copy job. “Well,” she said coldly, “I guess that will have to do.” I finished the copy work for her and went to sit back down at my desk. One of the other extension agents, Stan, came over to my desk and said quietly, “I heard the whole thing between you and Lee and I came over to tell you how impressed I am with your maturity and sense of responsibility. It would have been so easy for you to let it go by without admitting that it was your fault. I commend your for your character. If you ever need a job anywhere, let me know and I will give you the highest recommendation.”

I don’t think Stan ever knew how much those words meant to me. I was still smarting from the sting of Lee’s scorn and feeling rather incompetent. It was a small thing for him to do, but it loomed large in my life – I have never forgotten it. The right words at just the right time.

When I was a young mother, I was in church one Sunday with one of our sons who was being rather squirmy and difficult, and my husband wasn’t with us (perhaps out of town). I struggled with him throughout the whole service and felt like a complete failure as a mother. I was near tears by the end and could hardly wait to leave. But as we were leaving the sanctuary, Mac L., one of the deacons, handed me a note that he’d written. It said, “I watched you with your son during the service and thought what a wonderful mother you are. I would have been so happy to have a mother like you and if you were my daughter, I’d be so proud.” Mac had grown up in the foster system, so he had never experienced any sort of stable home life.

I treasured that note. I don’t know if Mac knew how discouraged I was that Sunday, but God knew that I needed a word of encouragement. The right words at just the right time.

“Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such word as is good for edification, according the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear.”
Ephesians 4:29

“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”
Proverbs 25:11

This has been True Stories with Lynniebeemuseoday.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning…unless you found these words to be fitly spoken.