Encouragement. First step: Are you and your spouse good at encouraging each other?
- you both do the normal stuff like say “please” and “thank you”
- you both listen intently when your spouse speaks
- you both offer hope when times are tough
- you both support each other with your actions – helping & being that extra pair of hands
- you both have servant hearts
- you both pray for each other, taking everything to God
- you both delve deeper into your walk with Christ and share with each other
- you both exemplify the traits of love found in 1Corinthians 13
Well. Maybe you’re not that perfect… (all the time)
You are both working on encouraging each other…
It is fun to encourage your spouse, right?
Now what?
Pass a bit of encouragement along to others.
Encouragement – Pass it along!
Encourage others – together. Encouragement – pass it along.
Here are few date night ideas – ideas that you can execute together that’ll encourage others:
- Go to a favorite bookstore, pick out a book that you both love as an inspirational tool and purchase it. Spend some time writing a note about why you both love the book, paste it into the front, and donate it to your local library.
- Buy a dozen re-usable shopping bags, and in the parking lot outside your local grocery store, give them away to unsuspecting shoppers. (If you’re ‘crafty’ you could buy some canvas bags from a craft store, write an inspirational motto or scripture verse that you both feel would encourage someone.)
- On a similar note: Buy a dozen roses. Go to your church, or local YMCA, or even a shopping mall. Give a rose to each couple you see as a symbol of how precious a married relationship can be. Or give a rose to a mom/dad with little kids – they can always use some validation! (Parenting is hard.)
- Cook a special dinner together – then box it up and deliver it to another married couple who you know. Perhaps add a few questions/ideas on conversation starters. (Not every couple knows how to start a great conversation!)
- Buy some plant bulbs (daffodils, tulips, etc) and go visit a few houses in your neighborhood. Write a note introducing yourselves to package up with each bulb. Knock on a door, and meet someone new. Invite your neighbors to go with you door to door to meet (or re-meet) others, and have them add their note of introduction to each flower bulb. It takes time for bulbs to grow – so do new friendships need time to grow. But it’s always encouraging to see a friendly face. You and your spouse can be those friendly faces.
“Talking isn’t doing.
It is a kind of good deed to say well;
and yet words are not deeds.”
~ William Shakespeare
Robert and I love to talk with each other. We could probably spend days just chatting. (Confession: OK. We do spend many hours of many days just talking to each other and not getting much done.)
But that talking only benefits us.
It doesn’t give our encouragement any “reach”…
Encouragement. Pass it along.
How do you reach out with your spouse, to encourage others?
Got any suggestions or ideas?
Please leave a comment and share – I’d love to gather more ideas about encouragement – pass it along!
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So often in my life, I find that I pour nearly all my energies into my children and forget about my poor husband. Thank you for this reminder, it has been a blessing to me! I SHALL determine today to be more encouraging to my husband, and hopefully that will result in blessings to others, too.
Oh Amy – I’m so happy you saw the value that’ll come from encouraging your husband. You’ll soon see how this encouragement to your spouse spills out into every area of your life.
Although I don’t have a spouse I do totally agree – I think we should encourage everyone, show kindness and share little things with strangers – like a smile. That simple. Where I live you’d think it cost money to smile at strangers.
I love it when you give a smial and a cheery hello to a stranger and you see their shoulders go back and a smile appear on their face also
A smile is a huge gift. To anyone. (And it effects the smile-er too!) I agree with you that we all can do the simple stuff!
I love these ideas! Keeping a marriage strong and healthy with encouragement and continuing to date eachother and put each other first is SO key!!
A strong marriage relationship has a ripple affect – the effects are seen further than just two people.
And when that married couple models encouragement, just watch who else learns to encourage? Everyone around them!
Thank you for your wonderful post! It made me laugh and smile and made my heart warm. Me and my partner talk all the time as well, but I hear people around me who seem to have forgotten to talk to each other, and more importantly stopped listen to each other. I believe if we always try and talk from a loving place and always try and listen from a loving place, then our chances of actually communicating with each other becomes much better. I love your tips on things to do together. i will share these for sure!
Thanks so much Matilda for your kind words – I’m thrilled that you’ll share these ideas.
I read an interesting phrase recently about listening – it was “listen deeply”. Imagine if we all “listened deeply” to our loved ones – and if we really heard what they wanted to say (not just the words), how differently our homes would feel…
haveing read your blog I can feel a new goal coming on – apart from clients give encouragement to at least one person outside of my family everday
That’s so great Mary! Thanks for commenting, and I wish you much joy as you pursue your goal!
What a lovely post, Lori. I love the ideas. Thanks.
Hello Bonnie – thanks for your support. Good to hear from you!
Fun ideas! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Hi Lori,
Thanks for linking up at Marriage Moment.
Your post is great! I’ve been married for 20 years and never thought to do such encouraging things WITH my husband towards other married couples. Oh, sure we do plenty of service projects for others, especially for and with our church family, but your ideas are great. I will be talking with him about implementing some of these. IN fact, now that I think about it some friends of our just did this for US last month. They gave us a gift card for a couples night…. I’m thinking it’s time to Pay it Forward. Thanks for the idea. 🙂