Encourage One Another

Day 94.

Happy Thursday! I hope that you had a lovely day! We have tomorrow off of school in honor of Veteran's Day, so it's sort of like Friday for us.

This morning the kids did the PA announcements. They were asked a few weeks ago, by the principal, to prepare a little something in honor of Veteran's Day. The whole school was asked to wear red to honor the veterans and then Madison (Hudson stood by her, but was a tad too nervous to speak over the PA system), share with them that R.E.D. stands for Remember Everyone Deployed. It was a sweet moment and coming after Hudson's performance last night and the Marine Corps birthday being tomorrow, it felt wonderful to know our family has so much support and encouragement out here.

I feel like everything I've been reading, studying, hearing, etc has been about encouragement. I've always considered myself a positive person and I LOVE encouraging others, but what I've been reading takes it a step further. When we take the time to encourage and lift others up, it takes the focus off of ourselves. So, no matter what we are going through, by putting our efforts and energy into encouraging others, our circumstances because lighter because they are no longer consuming our thoughts.

Madison has some very sweet girls at her school, that both happen to be in her class this year that have been such an encouragement to her during this deployment and I know it's really lifted her spirits and helped her to feel supported. I was able to snap a quick picture of this trio earlier this morning and then of course I had to get one of her with her BFF, Mackenzie.

    

So my challenge to you tonight is to make a point to encourage someone because you never know what they are going through and even if you're going through a tough time, focusing on someone else will lift your spirits too!