Tuesday, June 21, 2011

What's my favorite word???? (Review & Giveaway!)


edify


–verb (used with object), -fied, -fy·ing. to instruct or benefit, especially morally or spiritually; uplift:

 

If you ask anyone who knows me what my favorite word is, this would be it.  I love to teach my kids, my youth, whoever it is what this means. 

 

Romans 14:19
Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.

There are many Scriptures that tell us how important it is to lift each other up, or to edify one another. 

Do you ever just long for someone to say something uplifting and encouraging to you?  What would your life be like if you walked around all day long, everyday, and no one ever gave you any edification?  I don't know about you, but I wouldn't hold myself together very well. One day of just negative things and I'd already be shaken! 
It is so important as a body of believers that we lift each other up. That we encourage one another, and love one another! You never know when one word of encouragement can turn someone's entire life around. A pat on the back to say, hey I've been there, things do get better. A high five to show someone you appreciate the great job they've done. Sometimes all it takes is a moment to brighten someone's day and let them know they are loved. 
I often bring the word edify into conversation with teenagers. I find that at their age a lot of the "norm" is to cut each other down and make fun of one another. What purpose does that serve? Do you not realize how your words affect others? Jokes, whether you mean it or not, hurt. Harsh words, hurt. Even something as simple as not believing someone's motives when they speak to you, that hurts.  I'm sure we've all dealt with this in our own lives. When I've faced these issues in the past, I've let them dig holes in my heart and it's hard to pull away from that. It's hard to forget. Thank God for His amazing grace because He gives me strength to move forward even when I'm hurting the most. He wants us to love each other as He loves us. 

Psalm 3:3

 3 But You, O LORD, are a shield for me,
         My glory and the One who lifts up my head.


If God loves me enough to lift up my head and be a shield for me, shouldn't I try to do the same for others, realizing that I am not God, I am man, but that I can still strive to lift others up?
If we are going to move forward as a body of Christ, we must acknowledge that there is no place for negativity in our lives. We need to step out of our comfort zone, stop picking on people, making jokes, etc and begin to lift one another up in love.

This month I have the privilege of sharing with you guys a beautiful piece of work that I received from DaySpring, through (in)Courage 's (in)spired deals. Each month they pick a theme for the month, and this month's theme is: Encouragement
I was sent a beautiful picture frame to review that I absolutely love.


   
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Isn't it cute?  I absolutely love the bright vibrant colors, and the fun decorative numbers.
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I haven't found just the perfect picture of it yet, but I plan to put a picture of my three sweet blessings in it.
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It's made of VERY durable material (in fact my 6 year old has already dropped it, without a scratch to be found) And the best part of all, it opens up an opportunity to tell anyone who enters my home and sees it about the blessings God has given us, not just in our kids, but in all things.
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In addition to being able to review this great product for you guys, I also was given the opportunity to share something with one of you. One person who comments on this post will win a Coupon Code for $20 to spend at DaySpring!
All you have to do to enter is :
1. Be a follower of my blog
2. Leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite way to encourage others.
You must do both to qualify for an entry!

You can get bonus entries for:
Tweeting/Facebooking about this message, leave a separate comment for each (1 extra entry per social networking site)
and 2 bonus entries for writing your own blog about encouragement in your life and linking back to this giveaway! (please post two separate comments)

I will leave this post open until Friday the 24th  at midnight and at that time I will draw a winner using Random.org and post the winner here on my blog!
I cannot wait to hear the great things you guys are going to share with me!

 

 


In full disclosure, I was given this product at no cost to me by DaySpring to review as well as the giveaway code. All opinions within this post are my own.

4 comments:

  1. So, I'm sitting here in tears at the moment, not sure how coherent my comment will be LOL. Mel, BEAUTIFUL post.

    I think I will write a short blog post to tell my favorite ways to encourage. But here's a very simple way: sometimes all someone needs is a smile. Yes, they need so much more, but giving someone a bright smile and cheery greeting can be a great start to warming their heart. Sometimes you just need to focus on them.

    And I gotta say this post comes on a day when I really needed it.I sometimes find I have a great lack of people around to really encourage me. On those days when I'm really feeling that lack, I will pray and instead of focusing on myself, ask God to show me who I can encourage. Or edify. Maybe I need to work that word into my language some more :)

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  2. I wrote a blog post. I wrote it 5 times, and really feel it should be written again, but it's going to have to wait LOL. But here it is!

    http://philippians48myprayer.blogspot.com/2011/06/edify.html

    (remind me to tell you a story about this later!)

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  3. encouragement...I think the best way to encourage someone is to be there for them no matter what. It could be just listening or it could be advising. Right or wrong we always need someone by our side.

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