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There are many blogs, FB posts, and Twitter posts that I read and haven't written a comment. I've seen someone at church, work, at the store, etc and didn't make the effort to say something to a person I knew or only was acquainted with.
There isn't always a good reason other than I didn't take/make the time or I was unsure if my comment was good enough.
Recently I judged a writing contest. The contestants were asked to send a word of thanks to the judge when they received their score sheets.
One person wrote a very kind response to me. I recalled her work as one with beginning writing characteristics. Remembering how nice judges were to me when I sat in that position, I chose to comment only on the basics, gave resources, and sprinkled compliments where I could. I did not inflate the grade to make the person feel better, though.
The comment I received warmed my heart. The individual said he was older and had always wanted to write this story. Because of the comments on the score sheet, he said he felt encouraged and wanted to pursue learning more to write the book better.
Wow!
Only a week later, I observed a critique written from one person I knew to another. The critiquing individual suggested a major shift and gave their reasonings. The shift would drastically change the story and the writer's voice if the author followed through and did as asked. At the time, I felt I shouldn't say anything even though I felt strongly against the suggestion.
The comment circled in my head for days. It seemed God wanted me to write the writer and say my reasons why the major shift should not be done.
It nagged at me. Resurfacing as I did dishes. When I went to bed.
I finally gave in and wrote the writer privately and included a list of reasons why I felt the major shift should not be done.
To my great surprise the writer wrote me back and said she'd spent a great deal of time in prayer the last few days regarding the matter. She became confused, wondering if her style of writing would ever be published. To do the shift would change the work to not be what she felt led to do. The next day, my email arrived to her.
It had become the answer to the writer's prayer and ended up encouraged the writer.
Taking the time to leave comments, or simply give a comment to someone we meet at church, work, at home, anywhere, can often take effort on our part. We may feel unsure about their response or actual need.
BUT, the one thing I learned from the two situations above was:
It's nice to receive comments.
It's nice to give comments.
As long as the comments are:
*encouraging.
*constructive
*for the individual (and not for your benefit-platform)
*complimentary if appropriate
*Paulinian (say what is good before what needs to be improved)
*proof read (typos can change the meaning of the comment to something not intended)
*considering the level/situation the person is experiencing at that very moment
Below, I have a space for you to leave comments. Today, I will give my comment to you first. I really appreciate your visits here at Let's Talk. Your faithful readership up lifts my spirit everyday. I am encouraged to be faithful to you by including you in my prayers and always having the next post up on time, to listen to what interests you and addressing those topics.
A few weeks ago we discussed our one-words for this year. Someone chose the word encourage. Let us go about and encourage others this week by expressing kind comments.
How can you encourage/try to make a comment to someone this week?
Comments
Thanks to your word of the year post, I was challenged to seek God's choice for me. All of a sudden the word glory started popping up everywhere. In particular, I received a newsletter from World Challenge that spoke to me about God's glory in a new way (you can find that on their website probably). So my word is "glorify." I am still ponddring what all that means. Thank you for your caring voice in this world.
Blessings on you Janice
So nice to chat with you today.
Just encountered another mention of my word that you were the catalyst for. I am reading True Spiituality by Cip Ingrsm, and here is the quote, "4. Spiritual growth is accomlished by the Spirit of God, through the Word of God, in the context of authentic community, for the purpose of glorifying God."
Your blog and others where my Christian friends gather are all part of the greater Christian community that quotd is referring to.
I feel like a blog hog today, but that is okay. I think you would like to know about that quote!
Like you, Mary - there have been times when I probably should have made a comment, and didn't. I didn't take the time, or wasn't sure what I had to say was relevant, or would be received in the way I meant it, and didn't want to step out of my comfort zone.
I felt God leading me to be an online encouragement to Christian fiction writers/authors, some months ago,stepped out of my comfort zone, and now spend quite a bit of time online doing so. I am quite profuse with my comments, at times, and ponder how they will be received, but never put anything in words that I don't genuinely feel, and rely on God to let me know if I am considering posting comments that aren't either glorifying Him, or complimentary/beneficial to the recipient.
We will never know how many times the comments we were prompted to make, were answers to prayer for another person, as happened with you. Hence, my need for spiritual guidance in the words I say. I have received numerous grateful responses to my comments - which have brought me joy, in return. It has been a "win-win" situation - "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" are words that never fail!
Thanks for your wonderful post, Mary!
As for the typos, I don't have as good of an excuse. :)