we all need encouragement

Does anyone watch The Amazing Race? Did you catch it this past Sunday night? I'm specifically thinking about the challenge of finding the flags in the field of hay bales. If you didn't see it, it went down this way; one of the two members of each team had to unroll giant rolls of hay one at a time in hopes of finding a flag hidden deep within. Some of these players spent hours unrolling hay for hours before finding a flag.

It was interesting to watch the dynamics of the different teams, specifically one. Where most of the team members that sat on the sidelines gave encouragement to their partners, that wasn't the case for the team of two brothers. The brother that sat on the sideline chose to yell at his brother for a good part of the time telling him to "hurry," "go faster," "don't do it that way!," "do it this, or that, way."

As you might expect, this did not sit well with the other brother. You could see, and hear as he would just yell back, the frustration that this brother was dealing with. Not only did it waste valuable time, but it just added to the despair that this brother obviously felt.

At some point, the sidelined brother figures out that his yelling and lack of encouragement is not helping. In fact, it's hurting. He admits all of this on camera and adds that he doesn't know why he took this particular tact, not truly realizing how it impacted his brother.

I think there's a lesson there (thus, why I'm writing about it). Some times we handle a situation in a way that comes naturally to us not really thinking about how it might impact others or knowing that there may be a better way of approaching it.

Watching it all play out on The Amazing Race and seeing both sides of the relationship made me realize how important this principle is. It also confirmed my opinion that encouragement goes a lot further than nagging and pestering.

30 days of WORDS TO LIVE BY

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Philippians 2:1-4 NIV