Find your sources of soul food
Everybody needs a little encouragement at some time. The need is primarily based not on what you think about, but what you think about what you think about. It is not a matter of how you feel, but on what you focus. You choose your own focus factor. That may require a vector corrector in order to focus on things that are pure, good, optimistic, virtuous and positive.
Consider what encouragement is. The root is the old French word “coeur” meaning the condition of the heart. King Richard III of England was known as Richard the Coeur de Lion, meaning he had a heart like a lion. What is the condition of your heart?
Little babies are born with courage. They demand what they want when they want it no matter the circumstance. Then things tend to happen and they, bit by bit, get discouraged to some degree. Life puts a prefix in front of the word courage, “dis,” discourage.
By God’s good grace, that prefix can be removed and replaced by another “en,” encourage.
If you dare defy the PC world and march creatively to the beat of a different drum, expect a discouraging response. The pain this causes should not cause you to lose respect for the Drummer.
The film “A Star is Born,” originally made in 1976, has been remade and will come out later this summer. In the original film is this line, “Every dream realized has been paid for by pain.” Count on it, but don’t let it discourage you.
It is hard to respond positively to people and things that might tend to make you more bitter than alkaline dust. When they do, respond with an Niagra of love. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales,” the character Prioress wears on her breast, “Omnia Vincit Amor,” meaning “love conquers all.”
Don’t let the time required to achieve a worthwhile thing discourage you. Someone is sitting in the shade of a tree today that was planted a long time ago. What you are doing today may be someone’s “tree” tomorrow. People who did not know us provided for us. We can pay it forward by providing for those in the future we will never know. Take your time and do it right.
To avoid discouragement, realize your soul needs to eat and it isn’t nourished by espresso, carnality, bitterness, greed, secular sitcoms or daily news. Find the smorgasbord of blessing: positive thought, Bible truth, positive friends, prayer, meditation, exposure to the beauty of nature, worship and reflec- tion on the blessings in your life. Gorge.
The fact Psalmist 23 noted “He restores my soul” indicates our soul often needs restoring. Admit to yourself your human nature needs to be nourished by your spiritual nature. It is impossible to serve out of a bleached out spirit.
Nourish your inner self. Find your sources of soul food.
The Frenchman Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote, “We are not just human beings having a temporary spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings have a temporary human experience.”
When you feel you are drowning in life, remember the Lifeguard walked on water. You can do better than you think. You can do better don’t you think. You can do better if you think. That is enough preaching for me. I hope you found it helpful.