a little Encouragement

Tonight we were reading our little devotion book after dinner... I'd like to say we do this every night.. but we haven't opened it for a while :( but tonight proved to be a good time.

Encouragement.

i started reading and right away Addie interrupts me. "Mommy what's encourage?" I want to say "stop interrupting and you will find out." but, i encourage her to listen a little longer and then we will talk about it. wow. i was affected, maybe more encouraged by God, to suppress a quick response & cultivate a kinder one.

after reading i asked them if they could think of anything that was encouraging to them today.We talked about how teachers encourage them to keep working at something even if it is hard. Then sort of out of no where, Garrett responds he was encouraged that he didn't get 3 strikes at school.
"What?? you got strikes? What for?"
"Talking. Sometimes the 1st graders talk too much during times we aren't supposed to. It's not just me."
****
Encouragement.

i realized that Garrett was feeling comfortable right now. He felt encouraged to tell me what happened. He didn't need me grilling him about when it happened, how much, or why he hadn't told me before. He needed encouraged in this situation and to feel that encouragement to do so again. Honestly, i don't think i would have had that realization had it not been for what we just read.

So, feeling the encouragement from God, i asked him what he wanted to do about this. he said "not get strikes."
"ok. so what do you need to do."
"i can ask God to help me."
"good! so what should you ask?'
"to not get strikes??" he knew that wasn't quite right.
"well yes, you don't want to get those strikes.. and that's good. so you need to make a change in what you are doing. "
"like talking."
"yes, so you can ask God to help you control your talking when you are not supposed to."
".... and then i can encourage the other 1st graders? except brady, he never gets strikes." ;)

Encouragement.
Lesson learned.... till next time we need to encourage each other to watch either how we talk.. or how much!!