Thursday, April 14, 2011

A Turning Point Statement

During the summer of 1994, a friend told me she thought I had the spiritual gift of encouragement.  She posted a little note by my bed.  It said, "You are an encourager."  I remember exactly what it looked like--the handwriting, the color--and how it felt to have someone name something like that about me.  My friend saw what I couldn't see. 

That single comment shaped the next 15 years of my life.  I wasn't just an average girl; I was a hope giver, a courage finder, and an inspiration provider.  I wasn't just a nobody.  God wanted to use me to point others towards a beautiful future. 

It took someone naming it to help me see it. 

I had a student who told me that of all my weeks and weeks of teaching, the most memorable thing from my class was a single comment I wrote on one of his many essays.

In the margin of his paper, I wrote:  "You sound like a great teacher right here."   He was overwhelmed that I named that in him, and he later wrote about his dreams for graduate school to become a teacher.  As my husband and I discussed these turning point comments, he told me he remembered the exact words of a Scout leader who pointed out some unique gifts he saw in my husband.   Those were turning point words. 

Today, as I guide students through their memoir drafts, I realize that I'm not naming what I see enough.  I wonder what I need to name in my children, in my friends, and in my students.  I see this in you.  Maybe God will use it to shape a life.  Maybe those words will be a turning point for someone today.

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Journal:  Did someone speak "turning point words" to you when you were younger?  Can you speak a "turning point word" to someone in your life today?