Not only is it important to verbally recognize the talents & gifts of others, it is important to encourage them, look for the good in others, help them to do amazing work, develop their own God-given gifts & talents. For many of us, when we bravely step into our spiritual gifts, that little word of encouragement when we see God at work in us, a word of encouragement can help us to be bold & embrace the gift God has entrusted us with. Encouragement, even recognition of the talents & gifts of others sometimes re-enforces what God has revealed to us even when we are arguing with him about stepping into it. A collateral benefit of encouraging others is that we will be seen as a collaborative & supportive person, someone easy to work with because we see & value the other person. As Christians we are to encourage other Christians in their spiritual walk with the Lord. But how do we encourage? One way used by the Apostle Paul is to pay attention & openly acknowledge what others do that is right. His encouragement came at the beginning of his letters. He would state he was thanking the Lord for them & prominently list their spiritual accomplishment. He would even tell them others were talking about them in a positive light or their faith was being “spoken of throughout the world” Rom. 1:8. Look through the epistles & find more encouragement. Can we make ourselves available to the Holy Spirit to encourage someone every day? In an authentic, genuine way and open to the leading of the Holy Spirit to lift someone up by acknowledging them & what they are doing is good, right & allowing the Holy Spirit to work in & through them? Of course we can! Every day we can look for good in those around us. We can embrace the wisdom of others who come to us in encouragement even when that encouragement isn’t in the form we expect it to be. Think about it… what might encouragement look like coming from someone who is wise? or someone who has been in the industry a long time? How might we encourage someone who keeps doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different response as they begin to step into what God has called them to?