Encouraging Each Other with Love and Understanding
Every week I organize our family’s vitamins and medicine in pill boxes according to each member’s health needs. The process isn’t labor intensive, but I don’t delegate it because it’s important to me that everyone has the resources they need to stay healthy.
Yet almost every day the same scene plays out in our home. A child is coughing and sneezing. The child starts sniffing—loudly. Then I ask, “Did you take your allergy medicine today?”
I don’t have to be in the same room anymore to know that, when prompted, my sons then get up and take their allergy medicine. But the craziest thing is that they can cough and sniffle for hours until I ask that question. They rarely take the step to care for their own needs without prompting.
I could excuse my sons’ choices as teenage forgetfulness, but I can’t help but consider how similar my actions are when it comes to daily life choices.
- How many times have I confessed to a friend how fearful I am about something only to have them ask, “Have you prayed about this?”, and then realize I’ve not yet paused to pray?
- How many times have I opened my Bible study homework and realized I haven’t read my Bible since last week’s homework was due?
- How often does a conflict arise in one of my relationships because of a lack of tending and care?
- What about my personal health? Am I as disciplined about what I eat when my clothes fit comfortably as when my tighter jeans push me to walk a few extra minutes on the treadmill?
The reality is sometimes we need an outside influence to remind us we have the tools we need—sitting right in front of us—to improve our lives. We don’t have to walk through life coughing and sneezing, and we don’t have to live in fear.
Don’t get me wrong. We all have a personal responsibility to take care of our physical, mental, and spiritual health. Still, as Christians, we’re not required to juggle every ball alone. Hebrews 10:24–25 reminds us to support one another. The author says, “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (NIV).
This feels vague, doesn’t it? What does it mean to spur someone toward love? What good deeds? Meeting about what?
I think these statements are vague for a reason. Within each community or season of life, the encouragements we need change. Some seasons, we need others to remind us to move forward in the mundane, and in other seasons, we need support to help us over the hump of a particularly challenging call from God. Sometimes we need community, rather than the world, to help us refocus on what God says is true. In other seasons, we’re the ones who need to step into the role of encourager and cheerleader. And you know what? Sometimes the role of encourager requires us to ask the same question over and over to prompt those in our community to care for themselves.
Hebrews 10:24–25 is clear about one thing. We are supposed to encourage one another “all the more as [we] see the Day approaching.”
It’s frustrating that I have to I ask my sons the same question every day. They have both required daily allergy medicine for over a decade, and they’ve taken over 3,650 pills! Yet I guarantee I will continue to prompt them daily in the months to come.
It’s easy to assume that because I’ve given my sons the tools they need to help themselves, I should let them learn about the consequences of their poor choices the hard way. Some days when I try to ignore their coughs, I do start to hope this will be the day they remember they don’t need to sit and cough, that a fix for their misery is one pill swallow away. But eventually, when I can no longer tolerate the misery, I know I’d ask once again, “Did you take your allergy medicine today?” I don’t force the pill down their throats, and most of the time I don’t waste my breath pointing out that they’re old enough to remember to care for their health by themselves. (I mean, come on! It’s frustrating!)
Still, I think this routine is part of living in community. We need to understand that it’s okay to encourage one another to make the best choices, even if it requires daily accountability. We need to love one another enough to spur each other on, even if it requires a small daily prompt to encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ to live their best lives.
The day might come when the tables turn and my boys will remind me to take my medicine. If so, I hope they will do so with love and understanding, even if they have to repeat themselves for a decade. I’ll need their encouragement.
is a football coach’s wife and mom of two energetic boys. She strives to encourage those around her to pursue their best lives in Jesus whether she is near the game field, in church, or at the local coffee shop. As a writer, Beth has been striving to find her voice through seeing Jesus in the ordinary and extraordinary of daily life. She blogs at Lessons from the Sidelines.
Photograph © Alex Sorto, used with permission
