Tag encourage others with your words

The Class Reunion

At a class reunion years ago, I heard some very wise words from a stranger. It was my husband’s reunion and I did NOT want to go. It’s not that I actually suffer from social anxiety but I hate these kinds of things, although I do very well at them. That’s the reason I question if I have social anxiety. I don’t get petrified or anything but I hate to make small talk.

But I knew how much my husband wanted to go. As it turned out I had a great time and blogged about it shortly thereafter.

I’ve written often about “acting as if”, meaning acting more confidently than one feels and that’s what I did that night.

It was fun because I watched my husband turn into a social butterfly. It was great watching him search out former classmates. Can I just say here that the teenage years were not good for either one of us so it was wonderful seeing him reconnect with the friends he had really liked in high school.

wise words from a stranger

One of the couples I met that night owned some companies that specialize in anything related to computers. That encouraged me to tell him I had started a blog, that my learning curve was very steep, and that each week I was having to learn a new skill. He was a quiet man but apparently, he was listening.

He seemed to ponder what I said for a few moments, then he said “There are people with a lot of knowledge on their shelves (his hands extended far apart at this point) but they don’t do anything with it. Then there are people with very little knowledge on their shelves (hands narrowing to about two or three inches) but they use it all.”

Those wise words helped me feel less a failure. I think it’s wonderful how God uses perfect strangers to encourage us. My husband had encouraged me in countless ways. My friends had as well. But isn’t it like all of us to sluff off encouraging words from family and friends? We figure they’re just trying to make us feel good.

It was the visual way this stranger presented it that got my attention.

Let me be that stranger for you

You may feel like I did that night, overwhelmed by a task or a project you think you will never learn. You feel like a failure because it’s taking you longer to figure out something that you think it should. That’s how I felt that night.

When I look back at that night and realize how frustrated I was and how a complete stranger heard me and gave me that great visual, I want to pass that on. If you’re feeling the way I was then, think about this. Not only did I figure out how to blog (Well, you be the judge.), but I’ve written a book since then with another one soon to be finished.

Let me be that stranger for you and share some words of wisdom. You don’t have to know it all either. And just because you feel like a failure, doesn’t mean you are. Work with what you have and keep pressing on. There will come a time when you will look back just like I do now, and be glad you didn’t give up.

We don’t know each other. But I’ll bet we would be friends if we did because you wouldn’t be following this blog if we didn’t have a lot in common. We would no longer be strangers, but friends.

God uses strangers

Our family and close friends inspire us all the time but when we get good advice comes from a stranger, out of the blue, and hits us where we live, we take special notice. It doesn’t happen very often because those closest to us will always impact us the most. But sometimes I feel that God puts someone like this in my life because I haven’t been listening to those closest to me, or God himself for that matter.

How about you? Has someone, especially someone you don’t know, said something to you that has impacted you greatly? Words of wisdom that changed your life?

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When we’re the stranger

A better question might be, “Have I said something that a stranger could consider wise that has affected them greatly? Even changed their life?

If I haven’t, why haven’t I? I want to remember that experience so that I, too, can be sure to be an “encourager” to others.

God bless and I hope you have a good day.