A Priceless Gift
Yesterday I had someone believe in me. They believed in me in a way I couldn’t and I can’t tell you what it did to me and for me. They saw me not for who I was, but for who I could be.
By the way, God has done this throughout history. He changed Abrams name to Abraham. Simon would be called Peter. He was and is always believing and calling the best out of people.
One of the most amazing gifts you can give the people around you is a simple belief IN THEM.
So who is it? Who do you need to believe in today in a way they can’t believe in themself? Your spouse who’s doubting a decision? A friend who’s going through a difficult time? One of your children who’s struggling in a sport or at school? An employee that’s just off their game a little?
Maybe you’ll express it through a spoken word that lands on their soul or a simple hug that gives them hope. Maybe it will be a note you’ll hand them that gives them confidence or a glance which communicates it all.
Either way you’ll give them a gift. A gift they can’t give themself in that moment. You’ll give them the confidence to be the person God has created them to be.
So who needs you to belive in them today?
It’s funny…I wrote this post last night. This morning I had breakfast with a pastor that has lost his ministry and his family as the result of an affair.
While much time has passed there is still a part of him that doesn’t know if God can ever use him again.
I had the opportunity to look him in the eyes and tell him that God can and will use him. He’s always used imperfect, screwed up people!
Thanks, Pete. I needed that reminder today.
last night i had 2 encounters with people that i trust to love me and advise me and give me a push toward God
i had 2 different experiences….one non-believer in my dream and one star cheerleader for my future.
i struggled after leaving the last non-believer meeting, it happened to be the last thing i did before i went home. and in reality i needed this person to hear my heart and tell me this is ok. but he could not. i know he is only a pastor, a human, a person with distractions and decisions of there own, but i trusted him to open his heart on this. the disappointment left me forgetting about my biggest cheerleader.
i know is taking care of me and when man cannot see the dream, the ache inside, the disappointment, whatever, he does! he comes in a loves us, when no one else can and will.
but there are times where we ALL need a tangle person looking at us and saying
:I BELIEVE IN YOU!!!!:
:YOU ARE WALKING IN WHAT GOD HAS AND IT IS BEAUTIFUL!!!!:
there is a girl that i have to love tonight. to speak life and love and support and a good ole :atta boy!:
what i did not get last night i am DETERMINED to give away.
isn’t that what ministry is anyway?
pouring out of the over flow but also giving to others who are hurting what you are longing for as well?
I think my daughter needs to hear my husband and I speak loudly that we believe in her. Because of circumstances and choices I feel like we’ve had to speak most loudly in correction and “pushing”. I think I need to talk to her again so I can share my heart with her.
As for me personally, God has birthed some big dreams in my heart that seem utterly impossible and even presumtious. (sp) I have two friends as well as my husband who never blink but always say “How exciting! I’m so happy God is speaking to you. You can do it!” That IS a wonderful gift.
Yeah, another post about something that matters. I love to give hope to the hopeless and encouragement to the discouraged. Everyone needs a cheerleader. Everyone needs an occasional or even daily helping hand.
Thank you!
Yeah, another post about something that matters.
I love to give hope to the hopeless and encouragement to the discouraged. I love to point out the good in someone who is felling bad. Everyone needs a cheerleader. Everyone needs an occasional or even daily helping hand.
Thank you, Pete!
Pete: Great blog today. I needed to be reminded that sometimes it is not enough to “assume” that the person “thinks” you believe in them. It is very important that you make sure they KNOW you believe in them. It can make a big difference in someones life.
Thanks for the reminder.
sorry for the duplicate.
I didn’t know the first one posted.
I need to believe in my oldest son today who is struggling on many levels. Thanks for the encouragement.
I need to believe in a 27-year-old man in ministry that sometimes is very much a child in understanding and activity, but carries some major responsibility. I think if he understands that I (and others) believe in the him he CAN be, he will grow there. Thanks, Pete!
I need to believe in my sister, who is also struggling on many levels. Thank you Pete for writing this.
I remember giving birth to my first child (without any drugs…what was I thinking?) and truly trying to plan my escape when things got too painful. Between contractions, I was thinking up ways to convince te medical staff that if they would let me go home, I would promise to return the next day to ‘Finish the job”. Obviously, there was no way out for me- I was trapped-scared to death and could see no end in site.
After a couple of painful hours trying to deliver and ready to quit, , I HEARD MY NURSE’S VOICE SAY,”YOU’RE DOING GREAT! YOU’RE ALMOST THERE! HANG IN THERE SHERRI, HE’S COMING! KEEP ON! YOU CAN DO THIS!”
Something rose up in me. A FIGHTING HOPE! Her encouraging words alone gave me the strength I needed to deliver this baby under some complicated circumstances.
I’ll never forget that. Her words helped bring new life into our world!
Amazing!
I make it a point everyday to try to encourage everyone I come in contact with.
My daughter, a beautiful, giving person, who is experiencing financial hardships, her husband lost his job, she took in a teenager to help that girls parents, struggling with weight issues and medical problems. A person who gives so freely and unselfishly needs to hear me say ” It will be ok” and I believe in you.
I think I need to start with “believing in me” to be able to believe in Others. Thank for reminding me of a goal I never seem to get to – Accept that its alright if things dont always go right when I do them.
I think there is a key here as well. When you encourage people, speak life into them, it gives you permission to have the hard talks later if you have to… the admonitions that we all have to deal with sometimes, knowing tho, that this person loves and cares for you. That makes it easier to swallow. If my pastor hadn’t loved on me the way he has and said what he’d said to me a while back, I’d have just built a wall like the past 2,456 times. But this time it took. There is a huge key there Pete.
My sister is believing in me to sing again, someday.
And I needed the reminder that I need to believe in somebody I can’t name here today too. The Lord knows I know, and I thank you for being open to His posts here
)
Blessings, Whitney
thanks for being such a bright light on this internet. you are an encouragement to me and many others.
be brave…
Yesterday my husband and I celebrated our 25th anniversary. Inside the card my husband gave me was a list of 25 things he wanted to thank me for, and there on the list was the very thing you are talking about: he was thanking me for believing years ago that he deserved a promotion and that he could do the job. This, he noted “made [him] believe.”
Out of all of the things he to choose from over 25 years of marriage, that was one of the things that was most pivotal to him! I really had no idea! I DID believe in him at the time, and all I did was express it. That was 20 years ago. That was about the only chance anyone doing his job has had for a similar promotion in the last 20 years, and he took the chance because I believed in him, and has been doing that job successfully every since. Who knew?!!!
My neighbor. He’s struggling in so many ways. He needs someone to consistently be on his side and cheering for him and including him. We all do–some of us are just blessed with friends and family who already do that.
@Jan Connair, that is so cool. Proud of you guys.
Pete, thanks for loving and encouraging people who mess up. I think you are probably more like Christ in that than in anything you do. We are attempting to launch an online community (for a starter) to minister to hurting pastors like your friend. I’ll put this post as a link there, but welcome a guest post any time. We haven’t really done much with it yet, but hope to soon. The site is http://www.hurtingpastors.org
God bless,
Ron Edmondson
http://www.ronedmondson.com
I really do believe that we either leave people feeling better about themselves or worse about themselves, but we never leave them unaffected. I spent a lot of my life not feeling like “enough.” My biggest goal is to make sure my nieces and nephews, and the other important kids in my life, always know that they are enough for me… no matter where they are at or what they do. They are incredibly special people and I want to make sure they know they have someone who believes in them and that they always have a safe place to fall.
Can’t see through the tears, but I’ll try. God needs me to believe Him!! My husband needs me to believe in him. We are separated and not planning on reconciling, but God wants me to pray for restoration. To do that I need to believe that my husband and our marriage are worth praying for.
I have watched how words can speak life into my 16 year old son. For someone, especially a man, to tell him they think he is an amzing young man. Oh it brings life into his soul. What I would give for that man to be his dad!!
Wanted to share with you I wrote a letter to Obama on my blog today about abortion. God spoke SO loudly, I couldn’t not write it. I am not this bold. I like to be liked too much.
I’d love prayer and your support.
GOD IS ABLE!
A word to that pastor, just in case you’re reading: You are still eligible for God’s grace. I believe in you.
My parents’ church received an interim pastor who had been in this situation, and he spoke such words of help, hope, and healing. I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes:
“And Jesus pulled and stretched him, in love, and challenged him to become more than he was.”
You will be more than you were. Not less. God’s redemption is real and complete. I pray you have the courage and faith to believe God for your future as He intends it to be.
I was praying a couple weeks ago and was telling God that I want to love like Him, think like Him, act like Him, believe like Him and then said, “Wait Lord, you don’t have to believe, you KNOW. What DO You believe in?” I think I actually gasped out loud when I realized, He believes in US!
Our words can speak life or death over someone. I’m praying to speak life over some sweet people that I work with.
Thanks Pete.
My son and my daughter…they’ve had as many ups and downs I believe as I have. But they haven’t been in church for a very very long time, I know they will eventually..because God is in control.
@sara, I like the way you put that! Sometimes I have the awful feeling that I spend too much time correcting and teaching my kids by showing them what they are doing wrong, thus leaving them feeling worse about themselves. That is sooooooo not my intention, but I suspect I need to leave them feeling better about themselves much more often!!!
Kyle AND Kyla.
Thank you for this post! I was just asked today by my teenaged son a question that has broken my heart. Thru my shock I tried to form an answer. I need to follow up with this precious child to have confidence that he can be the person God created him to be.
This was an instant message conversation I had last night with my good friend Joseph. He’d been encouraging me and you know how it goes with IM, you often send just as their reply comes in and things don’t match up, or they DO match up in unexpected ways:
Joseph says:
keep in mind that there are few we can touch with our lives and the more we can touch, the more we are remembered
Diana says: (in reply to his)
and the more that touch our lives, the more our lives are enriched
Joseph says: (in reply to mine)
all the more reason to be happy you are in my life
Diana says: (sent just as his previous reply came in)
as you’ve enriched mine. daily. Even when I don’t talk to you
I do believe in my friend Joseph. and he believes in me. That’s a good friend.
I DO believe in my BFF, Becky. She is an amazing young woman who is going to do amazing things with her life and I feel blessed every day that God entrusted me with her friendship.
Becky you are wonderful…even though you call me at 2 am to ask me to call you at 8:30 am and make sure you get up…and P.S. I love you (and I believe in you).
I have to breathe words of encouragement into my kids daily. If I show them I believe they can do something they will try harder. I know you know exactly what I mean, Pete & Brandi. They don’t give up as easily when Mommy is cheering them on. It’s so adorable and inspiring.
God uses me on a daily basis and I don’t think I’ll know the full effects of it until that glorious day when I get to meet Him face-to-face. But I know He does because I can feel it. That’s my inspiration to keep on. I’m just as screwed up as anyone. Maybe more than some even.
Great post!
Have a lovely weekend everyone.
Heidi Reed
This past Tuesday, we watched one of Rob Bell’s NOOMA video’s on this topic. The title of the video is Dust. Well worth checking out!
Pete, a fabulous heart, you have! Thanks for reaching out.
Hi Pete,
I stumble upon your blog and I feel really blessed by your postings. Just wanna say, Thank God for your wisdom!