encouragement...

Encouragement...
I've received some this week...
some actually en-couraged...
some... simply increased pressure...

The sister and I currently teaching... and simultaneously writing... Sister Talk: Resuscitate Your Faith... refer to the process as birthing...

I shared the metaphor with the 22 year old son... who happened to be trapped in a car with me for a half-hour after the birth of the first teaching...

The son received it from his mom... full-blown...
how the writing process equated to labor...
the teaching a birth...
the six weeks study... means SEXTUPLETS...!
no sooner do you birth one...
the labor begins anew...

If you can imagine... he didn't appreciate the metaphor...
That may work for you... but not for me...
I can't see myself birthing anything...

I spared him any further details...
but we talked this week... and he shared an encouragement...
after I voiced doubt about filling blank pages...

Reading Scripture... he thought about me and the birthing of the study...

For you formed my inward parts; knitted me together in my mother's womb. ... 

My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance...

Psalm 139:13, 15-16 ESV

God is knitting the Bible study in you...

He sees it and knows it... you can't right now...

but He's doing it...

The idea of Him forming the inward parts of Sister Talk in me... did bring encouragement... understanding mom's don't get to see... or know the babes fully... till they are born...

The picture took me just enough outside the process... to trust God in His forming...

But a subsequent encouragement... did not do the same...

the sister in cahoots tells me... a woman came in the shop and asked about the study...

When are you going to publish the study...?

Are you selling it from the shop...?

I want one when you do...

This one just stirred panic...

like the mom in the midst of hard labor...

receiving encouragement from her husband...

You're doing great honey...

and she lets out a string of expletives...

The labor is in the middle...

it's not done...

you're unsure you can complete...

I don't want to hear that now...

Then an unexpected encouragement... 

from a sister attending The Journey...

another study being birthed...

blessed me with a gift... an encouragement journal...

a day planner to set goals and encourage...

I got one for me too... so we could walk through it together...

This one made me feel special...

and reminded me... all this encouragement...

comes from Him...

Encouragement...

it's what we are called to do...

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging

one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Hebrews 10:24-25 ESV

Who is He calling you to encourage today...?