Encourage-[en-kur-ij] to inspire with courage, spirit, or confidence.
The enCourage Blog is weekly dose of encouragement in a world that is often filled with bad news. We offer life-giving entries each Monday and Thursday written by gifted women from across our denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). You can subscribe below to have them delivered to your inbox. With hundreds of blog pieces, you can search on a variety of topics in the search bar above to read and share with friends. Christina Fox, a gifted author, serves as our enCourage General Editor. If you are interested in submitting a piece, you can contact her at cfox@pcanet.org.
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Gospel Shaped Generosity
TATIANA ANDERSON | GUEST The trajectory of my life has been drastically impacted by the generosity of strangers. More than 25 years ago, after I came to know Christ and applied to a small Christian college in the United States, someone I had never met paid the remaining balance of my tuition deposit so I could pursue studies in theology and Christian ministry. Another anonymous donor generously covered part of my airfare. While I was an undergraduate student, a group of women from the church I attended organized a "love shower," providing everything I needed to live on campus as a 17-year-old international student. These faithful women, along with many others, gave generously, joyfully, and wholeheartedly during a season when I needed it most. Generous Hearts These acts of kindness were especially meaningful given the circumstances in which I had grown up. Having been raised in Ukraine during and after the fall of the Soviet Union, I am more than familiar with financial hardship. During my teenage years, my family and friends were personally affected by economic collapse and its far-reaching implications for daily life. Yet it was during that season that I came to know the Lord and the riches of His mercy. What I lacked financially, I gained spiritually and relationally. Much of what I needed to own, eat, or experience was provided through the generosity of others. Through their sacrificial giving, God faithfully met my needs and demonstrated His loving care....
Suffering and Our Suffering Servant
DIANA SCHEIDLER | GUEST Suffering. No one wants to suffer. Yet we all do. What does it look like to suffer? What does it mean to suffer? It looks different for everyone. We all walk a different path in life. However, we all have a suffering servant who has gone before us who bore all our sin and shame. He now comes alongside us in our suffering to remind us that we are not alone. He knows what it is to suffer. Indeed, the suffering He endured was so much more than we will ever have to endure. Suffering can, does, and will take on many forms. Chronic and terminal illnesses, infertility, loss, divorce, unruly children, desires that never come to fruition, and familial difficulties are just a few of the ways that we suffer here on earth. Can joy be found even among these difficult times? When keeping your eyes on our Lord Jesus Christ, our suffering servant, yes. Joy can be found. In my own life, I have gone through various trials that have caused me and my family to suffer. The biggest one that has caused all of us to suffer long though, was receiving my multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis in February of 2015, just a year and a half after my husband and I were married. While those two words were scary to hear, we finally had an answer as to why my body always seemed to react negatively. I dealt with numbness and tingly legs and face. I struggled (and still do) with leg spasms. There are times when I am unable to think of words and come up with silly sounds instead. I stumble and I fall, and I get overwhelmed by too many sounds easily. And yet, the Lord has been so gracious to me even within this diagnosis. He has never left me and never will. When I cry out to Him in pain, He restores my soul for He is with me. When I ask Him, “Why, Lord?” the answer is a peace that surpasses all understanding for I know it is within His plan. And His plan is so much higher and greater than my own....
Grace that Gives
STEPHANIE FORMENTI | CONTRIBUTOR There is a classic method used to trap a raccoon that relies entirely on its obsession with shiny things. A trapper places a glittering object at the bottom of a narrow hole lined with angled nails. Enthralled by the sparkle, the raccoon reaches down and wraps its fist tightly around the prize. But when it tries to pull its hand back out, it gets stuck. The clenched fist is too wide to pass through the opening. The raccoon is trapped, not because anything is holding it there, but because it refuses to let go of something worthless. This may seem comical, but we often do the same thing. We cling tightly to money, comfort, control, security, reputation—anything that makes us feel safe or significant. We grip these things because they seem to promise stability or protection. But often the very things we cling to most tightly are the things that quietly enslave us. In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul lovingly confronts this temptation in the Corinthian church. Speaking to believers who were hesitant to loosen their grip on material comfort in order to care for others, Paul invites them into the transforming grace of God which leads to radical generosity....
Spaces of Sabbath Rest
MARIA CURREY | CONTRIBUTOR Imagine if the music you listen to, favorite songs and melodies, had no sense of rhythm, no pauses for silence and a breath. To observe a rest in music is equally important as every note. God, as the Composer of all we know is the one who orchestrated every rhythm of the earth: the ebb and flow of the seas; the rising and setting of the sun; waking by day and sleeping by night; each beat of our hearts; for each of us, there is a measured pulse from cradle to the grave. To observe and embrace silent spaces within the scores of our lifespan is to enjoy God’s intended rhythm for our days. Merriam-Webster defines rest in a full spectrum from “lying down, especially to sleep; to cease from action or motion – refrain from labor or exertion; to be free from anxiety or disturbance…and a rhythmic silence in music or a character representing such a silence.” Restful Pace When we reach a rest in a musical score, that pause is as vital to the musical line as the notes. When we sing, each rest provides a needed breath to refresh for the next phrases. In our daily rhythm, we cannot sustain life for an indefinite time without rest. Just as each breath is essential to our physical vitality, we need spiritual breath to walk and run without fatigue and potential exhaustion....
A Godly Grief
KATIE DRAKE | GUEST Have you ever done something you said you’d never do? If your answer is yes, you aren’t alone. As a therapist, I have read many helpful resources on parenting and child development, so as I entered motherhood in 2020, there were particular things I mentally said I would never do. One of those things was that I wouldn’t raise my voice at my children. I remember vividly one of the first times I raised my voice at my children. I was three months postpartum after having my third. I felt desperate for a moment to myself and a warm shower. I fed my newborn, placed him in his bouncer seat, and stepped into the comfort of the hot shower. Within a few minutes, my two- and three-year-olds ran into the bathroom beginning to ask things of me. Soon they began to fight with one another. I first calmly spoke from the shower, but their frustration with each other intensified. I felt an overwhelming sense of desperation and anger rise in me. I stepped out of the short-lived shower and yelled, “Stop! Just stop it!” I saw the look of bewilderment and fear in their eyes; one quickly moved into the corner of the bathroom, and the other started sobbing. It was their small faces and reactions that made the moment so vivid. I instantly felt shame and guilt, but the shame spoke the loudest: “You’re such a bad mom,” “You said you’d never do that,” “What kind of mother yells at a 2 and 3-year-old?”...
Resting in the Unknown
LYDIA PINONTOAN | GUEST I’m coming out of one of those life stages when “How are you?” feels like a complicated question. From the outside, strangers and acquaintances might get the idea that our life is picture perfect. We’re happily married with an adorably precocious 18-month-old, a well-providing job, a beautiful home, and wonderful friends. But what they can’t see is the hidden loss, both personally and in our community, that we just can’t escape. They don’t see the questions swirling in my mind and wafting their way up to the Lord. So, when they say, “How are you?” usually my answer is, “We’re doing alright.” Yet I know that God sees the depths of my heart. He hears the questions, and though He may not always provide the specific answers I’m looking for, He always provides the comfort I need. Recently, that comfort has been conveyed through the poetry of the Psalms, particularly Psalm 131, as God has reminded me in my frustration with the unknown that I don’t need to know everything. Or more accurately, I should not know everything, because, by His good design, God is the all-knowing Creator, and I am the little-knowing creature. A Song of Ascents. Of David. O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. (Psalm 131:1-3)...
