Encourage

"Brothers and sisters, rejoice.  Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in Peace, and the God of Love and Peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the holy ones greet you." -- [2 Corinthians 13: 11-13.]


I wonder? -- When is the last time you gave, or received any encouragement?

Or, any of the other Fruits of the Spirit? -- Love. Peace. Joy. Patience. Kindness. Generosity. Gentleness. Self-control. Faithfulness.

As St. Paul says in Galatians 5: 22, "There is no Law against such things."

But, you would think there WERE such a law, against these things.

Believe me when I say, I grew up in a house with the all of the Vices, which are the opposite of the Fruits of the Spirit.

Drunkenness.  When my dad drank, things got ugly.
Immorality. Such as when my dad abused me.
Hatred. When my parents expressed their hatred of different political groups or ethnic groups or classes.
Discord. When my parents argued and lost sight of what their children needed from them.
Envy. When my dad became self-loathing over what others had that he didn't.
Anger. When my dad became bitter over how his life was turning out.
Selfish Ambition. When my parents put their personal ambitions over Love.
Arrogance. When my dad told us daily that we were superior to anyone else on the planet.
Murder. When my parents' Hate became murder of the Soul.
Idolatry. When my parents idolized "The Almighty Dollar" over "Almighty God."
Greed.  When my parents kept all the Blessings they had to themselves, and refused to help the poor.
Lying. When my parents told me I was a Failure, and allowed my brother to call me Ugly on a daily basis. A girlfriend told me, years later, "These are Lies, Satan's Lies, all Lies."

All of these rise well above what a Secularist would call "Being negative." These are far more than "Being negative." These are habits and behaviors and beliefs that deeply offend God.

This offensiveness comes from the fact that all of these behaviors and beliefs totally negate God's Love.

I had to learn that drunkenness brings immorality, deceit, lust and ugliness. Today, I rarely drink. I can see what it does to human relationships.

I had to learn to treat my own body and the body of others as a Temple, a Holy Vessel.

I had to learn that Hatred is murder of the Soul.

I had to learn that argument and anger may "feel" powerful; but are in reality more like a massive truck spinning its wheels at a high pitch in deep mire. You may be making an impressive noise, but you are going nowhere. Not only that, you are digging yourself in, deeper and deeper.

I had to learn that the only Person I need to please, where my next step is concerned, is God.

I learned, from years of humiliation, an abiding Humility. I am on this earth only as long as God says I am, and I am merely His instrument on Earth, until the next life.

I learned to make money irrelevant, or my parents would us it as a weapon of behavioral modification, otherwise known as blackmail. It is immensely freeing to understand that Money can buy food or medical care or a place to live; but beyond that, Money can absolutely corrupt until you forget your fellow man OR God.

I had to learn that sometimes when you have no food, no money and not one friend, others' Greed is the enemy of survival.

I had to learn that the only Truth that matters is God's Truth. And if it is not Love, it cannot be the Truth.

As a world, if we do not tap into Love, Encouragement, civil discourse, Joy, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, Generosity and Self-Control, I honestly do not know how long we will survive.

We must strive to encourage one another, live in Peace and Love one another -- OR, we will die trying.

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