A word aptly spoken

Last Sunday while attending church services at a distant town, an old friend approached and hugged my neck.

She turned to a friend that I was with and began telling her how I had influenced her to "come out of her shell."

Many years ago we were in the same adult Sunday School class. This woman was so shy that she seldom contributed anything to the lesson, remaining quiet, eyes lowered.. She was hesitant to read a bible verse as class members took turns reading passages of scripture.

When it came her turn, she would ask to be excused from reading a scripture.

She confided in me that she had dyslexia and the letters became mixed up in her mind when she tried to read. I told her that having dyslexia was nothing to be ashamed of and that many people had that reading problem.

She recalled that I "gave her a talking to" and encouraged her to participate. She did, and began to respond and to become more comfortable in the classroom setting.. She read slowly, struggling with words, but she read them.

"If it hadn't been for her," she told my friend, "I would never have had the courage to join the community homemakers extension club."

After that, she became the president of the local club, then advanced to president of the county homemakers extension club.

"I never dreamed I would be standing before a group of ladies conducting meetings," she said.

She recalled that she was one of the featured speakers at the state homemakers extension meeting. "I was so nervous," she said.. But she made the speech and was congratulated by the president of the university where the gathering was held, she recalled..

Now, years later, she's standing in the church aisle, giving me the credit for her success. What!

I had no idea how I had influenced her by the words I spoke to her over twenty five years ago.

It reminded me of a scripture in Proverbs that says, "A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver."

We never know how a word aptly spoken can be helpful to another.

I have a friend whom I consider to have the gift of encouragement.

I think that gift comes from her own deep grief over the loss of her youngest son. His untimely death caused untold mental hurt and pain

Because of that chapter in her life, she is able to have empathy for those who suffer grief and have need of encouragement.

The apostles gave a special name to a man named Joseph. He must have had an amazing heart, because they dubbed him Barnabas, which meant "Son of Encouragement."

God has gifted us individually in various ways. Like Barnabas, some have the gift of encouragement.

Do you have a Barnabas in your life? Have you been placed in someone's life to be a Barnabas-encourager?

An encourager can change your outlook, your focus, and your attitude.

I remember Christine. She was a teenager living an unstable home life.. She didn't remember her father.....he wasn't in the picture.....and her mother lived in the city. She loved her grandmother, but her grandmother had died.

Christine lived with one friend and then another, staying for short periods in different homes, then moving on..

I met her when she was sixteen, I think.

She threatened over and over again to quit school. She did often skip school for various reasons.

I encouraged her to "hang in there" and get her diploma.

She'd say okay, then get disheartened, and threaten again to quit.

During her senior year when things got really tough for her, she rebelled.

"I ain't going back," she vowed. I know now that some of her rebellion was a sympathy ploy. She wanted attention.

I told her that if she would try, I would be there on graduation night, if I possibly could.

As graduation drew near, it was doubtful that Christine would graduate, not because of low grades but because of absenteeism.

But she made it.

On graduation night there was no family member there to congratulate her; only a couple of her friends.

I was surprised to see her singing in the choir. She timidly glanced all around the bleachers, searching for my face. Then when she saw me, a half smile spread across her face..

I still have her graduation picture. She couldn't afford a studio photo so she had a friend take a candid shot of her dressed in a simple gown. She is holding a single (live) red rose.

When Christine wrote a note or a letter, she always signed it, The Rose.

She loved a song called The Rose so I looked up the words last night.

Here's what the last verse says,

When the night has been too lonely

and the road has been too long

And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,

Just remember in the winter

far beneath the bitter snow

Lies the seed that with the sun's love,

in the spring becomes the rose.