Wednesday night.

Encouragement...
Encouragement can be a very mind changing thing. In the perfect timing it can give someone new perspectives on anything. Wednesday night at youth i was so encouraged by some of the greatest people ever. In the prayer team meeting if we have some time in the end then Lance will pick a random member of the team and just have everyone else pour into them, encourage them, to tell them basically how awesome they truly are. And this week we had about 8 minutes left before we had to head out into prayer, so Lance chose me to be the encouraged one for that particular meeting. So for about 8 minutes i was just being encouraged by the whole prayer team [Lance, Trish, Nathan, Jordan, and Kelli]. It's kind of funny too, cause sometimes we don't really know how much we need encouragement until we get it. So i realized how much i didn't see myself as a leader, and how much i needed to be encouraged...
Lately i had my best friend all-of-the-sudden completely ignore me. She wouldn't answer any of my phone calles, she wouldn't email me back for anything, and at church she would see me then walk the other direction, then eventually she stopped coming... I kept on asking myself what i did wrong, and if i was even a good friend. But i didnt have any sort of answer. I also kept on questioning my leadership skills. Cause if i can't even get my best friend to come to church then how could i get anyone else to come?? I didn't know what happened. I just had to deal with it, and eventually get over it.. I still call her all of the time, and i still look for her at church. Cause the worst thing that could happen is that she'll ignore the call, or not be at church- which has been happening for the past few months, so the worst is over, and i had no excuse to not reach out to her still. So i kept on trying.. And even though i'm basically over the shock [for lack of a better word] of this happening with no explination, i still had those questions in the back of my mind. No matter how hard i tried to ignore them, or silence them, they were always there. But last night in the prayer meeting I was more encouraged than i have been in literally years. Everything that the team was telling me was everything that i needed to hear! They kept on telling me that I am genuine, amazingly committed, and strong. Jordan said this verse that he said made him think of me, and that it truly described me. The verse was Psalm 16:8 "I have set the Lord always before me. Since he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken." And i had absolutely no idea how much i really needed that!! They pointed out that in our youth group we always have students that leaders need to go after to get them involved or to get them to commit. But no one ever went after me to disciple me or pour itno me. I just already was a leader before i was an actual student leader.... Because of that my night was the greatest night ever!! It just made me excited to be there, and ready for the service. It lifted my spirit. I was ready to set an example in worship and everything else.
So from now on i am gonna try to encourage people as often as i can, to let them know that im grateful for them just being them, and nothing/no one else... Cause you never know what is going on that you can't see. And you never know how some simple encouragement can change their self-esteem level, and their heart.