There is perhaps no better season for encouragement than the holidays – especially at Christmas. In general, most of us are in a giving mood around this time of year – and that attitude primes our heart for encouragement. But we need to realize that this time of year is not jolly for everyone. In fact, many people around us are hurting in a variety of ways. For this reason, its important for us to have our eyes and our hearts open for the many opportunities to encourage those around us – both our friends and family and those we don’t even know.
You might have an opportunity through your church or another organization that you belong to – to give money or gifts to someone in need. Maybe you have someone in your own family that has a particular need you can fill during this time. But if you are like many people, you would like to give to someone but you aren’t really sure where that gift should go.
7 IDEAS FOR BEING READY TO ENCOURAGE
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Often we would love to give or encourage but we aren’t prepared when the time is right. Here are seven ideas for being ready to give and encourage when the opportunity arises:
1. Purchase Gift Cards
Purchase a gift card (or several) from your local big box store or grocery store and keep them in your purse or wallet. You can wait to see someone in need and give them on the spur of the moment – like in a grocery store line. You can put them in a card and mail them to someone. You can give them to your pastor or someone else who may have the knowledge of someone in need.
2. Make a Food Basket
Purchase food items and make a basket to deliver to someone who is struggling or donate it to your local food pantry or social services. Include some essentials and some special treats – have some fun with this. Even if you don’t know who to give it to just yet, prepare it and have it ready.
3. Purchase a box of Christmas Cards
Purchase a box of Christmas cards and sign them with an encouraging note or verse inside. Seal them and put them in your purse or bag. Hand them out to anyone that you think might need a bright spot in their day. It could be your waitress at a restaurant or the young man that checks out your groceries. Or deliver them to your local nursing home or the prison where people might not receive any Christmas cards.
4. Bake some Goodies
Make some baked goods and wrap them up. Deliver them to a service organization – like the firehouse or police station. Or hand them out to the homeless. Or take them to your neighbors.
5. Plan a Meal
Plan a meal and be prepared to invite someone to your home to share it with you and your family. Pray about who might need that gift of hospitality, and then as the time gets closer you can make the invitation.
6. Plan to Help
Look around your neighborhood and think about some people who could use your help. These could be small things like filling the bird feeder or fixing their mailbox, or bigger things like cutting down a dead tree. Plan a time to show up with whatever tools might get the job done and the help that you need to get it accomplished.
7. Purchase Poinsettias
Purchase poinsettias and anonymously drop them off on the porch of someone who could use some cheer. Or deliver them to someone’s office or take them to the hospital and ask for them to go to someone who needs it.
Its really all about being ready to encourage and sometimes that takes a little planning. Even if you don’t yet know who needs the encouragement – you can take the steps to have something ready to give when that opportunity presents itself. We may never know how far this small act of encouragement will go, but we can be sure that we are sharing God’s love with others when spread some Holiday cheer this season.
“A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.”
Proverbs 11:25