Jenn's Journey

Happy 4th of July! Hope you are all having a fantastic long weekend. Remember to pray for this country of ours. We are celebrating living in a free country while behind the scenes freedoms are being taken away! Sit, have a cup of tea or coffee and take a few minutes with me.

"Therefore encourage one another and build each other up..." 1st Thessalonians 5:11

I have the privilege of having a group of women friends who are very good at encouraging and building each other up. We have a running private conversation on FB where we are free to be ourselves and share our joys, hurts, prayer requests…pretty much anything we want. There is no judgment, no dismissive comments. I've learned much from these friends. 

A friend sent me a blog that contained a list called "The Safety Sorter" which details emotionally safe and unsafe persons we come in contact with. This list was compiled by a lady named Cheri Gregory. A 'safe' person inspires, encourages, notices, listens, understands, and accepts. The message that type of person sends is “You're invaluable"; "You're worth knowing."

On the flip side, an 'unsafe person' presumes, dismisses, neglects, blames, shames and punishes. The loud and clear message from this is: "If you changed, things would be better for everyone." or "Who you are is unacceptable."

I recognized, as I am sure many of you do, that I have had too many of the unsafe types in my life.  I am now much more selective about who I let in. For a long time, I bought into the messages from the unsafe types. Thank God He has sent encouragers as well…and might I add, opened my eyes to see the positive more than the negative. 

It feels amazing to be accepted as we are, doesn't it? While at first I looked at this list and let my mind wander over who may be safe, or unsafe, I had to then ask myself: Which one am I? Am I safe or unsafe? I bet I've been both, because let's face it, sometimes it's hard to encourage someone when you can see better options for them. 

God is the ultimate encourager.  His voice is the one we should be listening for and to for directions. He has only good to say about us, about me! When that is embedded into our hearts, we'll be able to pass that on to those around us. We won't have time to point fingers or put down others. What a beautiful world that would be.

Until next week, be blessed, 

Jenn