How can I best serve others? (1)

Answer 1:  Build others up.

Here are some ways we can build each other up:

• Encourage others when they’re feeling discouraged.
• Tell them you believe in them when they’re striving for something hard.
• Notice when they’ve behaved admirably and tell them so.

It’s so much easier to tear each other down. It’s so easy to find fault and to criticize rather than spot the excellence and compliment, to kill other people’s dreams by pointing out the flaws and downside risks, and to remain silent when an encouraging word might help.

It’s so easy to belittle others’ ambitions:

“Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”  (Mark Twain)

Ironically, the closer we are to the person, the more tempted we may be to dish out the “tearing-down” stuff and to withhold the “building -up” stuff.

I read this somewhere and  it’s possibly correct!

Q: What is the one thing adult kids want to hear their parents tell them more than anything else?
 
A: “I’m proud of you.”

Such a simple thing to say, yet so hard  for lots of us, me included.  I wonder why? Self-consciousness?

I collect inspiring quotes. There are so many good quotes, but this one really got to me:

“My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person; he believed in me.” (Jim Valvano, basketball coach)

Can you think of a time in your life when someone believed in you when you didn’t believe in yourself?  Did it make a difference to you?

Can you think of a time when you believed in someone when they didn’t believe in themselves and where your believing in them seemed to help?

Here’s a lovely parting quote. We can be this person who re-kindles someone’s inner spirit:

In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. (Albert Schweitzer)