Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Are you an exhorter?

Here in Chile, people think the word "exhort" means to tell somebody off, to berate them, to let them know how horrible they are. This is, of course, not true. My Mom has done two ladies Bible studies on exortation. She defines exhortation as "restoring a Christian to joy"

How dangerous we are with words! I love blogging because I can think about something before I write it. I can also delete something with a few clicks of my mouse. I wish I had more sense with my speech!!!!

I wish I could say that I exhort people. I do not come by it naturally. But thats no excuse. If you don't something naturally, you need to learn to do it. That means just doing it because it is right even if you feel weird at first doing it. Its like smiling when you sing. I grew up singing in Church and my mom always used to say, "Rhonda, SMILE" Of course, I do smile when I sing, always. We are trying to teach the girl who is signing for the singing to smile when she signs. I do it naturally now, but it is learned.

So, I'll learn to exhort, to be an encourager. To lift up and not tear down.
"Let you speech be alway with grace...."

R

6 comments:

Cherish the Home said...

I just love your blog Rhonda....always so thought-provoking and truth-filled!

This is something I've had to learn to do as well. I, too, like blogging because of the reasons you mentioned....real life....I am constantly having to work on it.

Probably what I've been working on the most is not spewing forth with my opinion unless I'm asked first.

Love You In Christ!
~Mrs.B

Kristi said...

The problem I have is the same as Mrs. B mentioned. Spewing forth my opinion. I am very blunt and opinionated at times. I just did a post on a little bit of history of the KJB. There were some things I had originally written at the beginning of the post, but ended up deleting it because I knew there would be non KJBers reading it. So I got rid of it for them. Mainly because I didn't want to smack them in the face with it. Well, I do, but....LOL....that wouldn't be very Christlike would it? :)

~Kristi

Rhonda in Chile said...

Hi, Mrs B! You flatter me!
Bless you!

Kristi, You and I are definitely on the same page! I fight with the same problems. Just remember, liberals are not our enemies! And they will only be won over by your loving attitude. Satan is using the whole translation controversy
to get Christians upset with other Christians. We use the KJV in English and the Reina Valera 1960 in Spanish, and will not waver. But
I will not argue about it with anybody. Same with the modest dress issue, although the Scripture is infinitely more important than clothes!.
Bless you!!!!
Rhonda

Kristi said...

Rhonda, you are so right. :) I agree with you!

~Kristi

Anonymous said...

I love the fact that we are told to exhort one another, meaning to urge strongly or to encourage. It is so easy to criticise someone, even just in my head. It is so much better to build up by exhorting than to bring down with criticism :o) I can also get carried away with my opinions. I am learning to think before I speak (or type) lol. Proverbs is full of examples of fools speaking too much drivel - and sometimes I can be one of them, blush.

Anonymous said...

I try real hard to be an exhorter. I do at times say things in kidding that the Holy Spirit will smote my heart for and I have to ask for forgiveness....but I really do try to exhort when I have the opportunity. Thank you for this post. We can all do more exhorting I'm sure.