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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The Aroma of Christ in the Mundane
BROOKE URISH | GUEST As I walked past our guest room–turned–laundry-folding area, my stomach sank. How could there be so much laundry to fold? I pushed it out of my mind to focus on a more pressing need—my young kids need lunch. Once in the kitchen, the sinking feeling returned at the sight of a sink full of dishes. Didn’t I just do these this morning? My six-year-old asks me to play baseball out back for what feels like the hundredth time, and I snap—“I can’t play right now, stop asking me!” Immediately, I regret my tone and recognize that he deserves an apology. As a mom to three young children, this is a snapshot of a typical day. I often feel insufficient for the task at hand. I can’t seem to stay on top of laundry, dishes, school tasks, cooking, etc., so I label myself a “bad homemaker.” However, it’s times like this when the Lord brings to mind the encouraging words a wise woman once shared with me: “Brooke, God is pleased with what you do in your home, even when you mess it up.” The Aroma of Christ Is this really true? When I turned to Scripture looking for a roadmap or a checklist, God gave me something else entirely. He gave me an identity. In 2 Corinthians 2:15 Paul says: “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.” I am the aroma of Christ to God? What does that mean?...
Let God Cook
SUSAN TYNER | CONTRIBUTOR My husband Lee and I do not fight a lot, but when we do, it’s usually over something small. During our first year of marriage, our fights started in the kitchen. He had a way of cleaning knives because he worked in a restaurant growing up. Since I grew up cooking (and washing a lot of dishes), I didn’t really think that advice applied to me. When he insisted his way of knife handling was better than mine, I took it personally. Two hours later, we were making up after a huge fight. Turns out, the fight was not about the knife, but control. Before you think this is a “how to” marriage blog, hear my next kitchen story. For context, this is after thirty-six years in the kitchen. We have learned we have different approaches to meal prep. I tend to go fast and “eyeball” measurements while Lee’s perfectly chopped onion would make any sous chef jealous. Recently, I was cooking a recipe for the umpteenth time while Lee and our youngest daughter, Rebecca, were hanging around the kitchen island. Lee kept on asking questions about what I was doing to the point of triggering another Iron Chef battle episode. Although that was not his intent, it was slowing me down and I could feel my heart wanting to grab control of my kitchen. Before that could happen, Rebecca says in her twenty-something slang, Dad, let Mom cook!...
God’s Many Mercies for Our Many Miseries
ELIZABETH TURNAGE | CONTRIBUTOR As I sat down to revisit this beloved passage from 2 Corinthians 1, I received a text from a young friend. She has suffered many serious health challenges for a person in her late twenties. In her text, she asked for prayers for some new health concerns. As I was responding, she sent another text, “Also, please pray for my friend. He starts chemo today. I told him I would be glad to talk with him whenever he needs a listening ear since I know what it’s like.” How, I wondered, does a young woman who has suffered so intensely so early in life face her own concerning health news with such calm while at the same time asking for prayer for a dear friend? I believe she can do so because she grasps what the apostle Paul teaches in 2 Corinthians 1:3-11, where he lays out the connection between suffering and comfort, both from a theological and personal perspective...
About a Bird and God’s Tender Care
KC JONES | GUEST My eight-year-old daughter was recently given a quail. That’s right. She was gifted a live bird which typically requires a flock to thrive, among other necessities. It would not be a stretch to say I was unprepared mentally or physically for this ordeal, but I was also not aware of the dramatic impact it would make on all our hearts, especially mine. We serve a God of wonder. He is a God of great surprises and a God who lavishes on His children because He longs to do so. In the Scriptures, John exhorts his readers to, “see what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (I John 3:1) John calls us to observe and take note of the love the Father pours out upon us because we are His children and because He is that good. This truth became even more real to me as the Lord opened my eyes to see more of the depth of His love in His bringing us the gift of this little bird. A Delightful Gift It all began when my Malawian friend, who raises quail, brought my child the bird after we had tasted the delicious eggs she gave our family. Our daughter, upon initially seeing a picture of one of my friend’s baby quail chicks became instantly enamored and so my friend brought her one of her own...
The Gift of Intergenerational Relationships
BETHANY BELUE | CONTRIBUTOR Eight months after getting married, my husband and I packed up a U-Haul and moved to Atlanta. He was excited about the move, as it would mean following a call the Lord had given him. I was following in my body, but my heart was kicking and screaming. It was the beginning of a new and exciting season for my husband, but for me, it was the death of so much that was familiar to me: living close to family, a job that I loved, and the fulfillment of buying our first home. After arriving at an apartment complex I had not seen before, walking through church doors where I knew no one, and learning a city that was completely new territory, I wondered what the Lord had in store for us in this new place. There was little about our years in Atlanta that was easy. My husband worked a full-time ministry job while also enrolled in seminary full-time. We longed for a baby who was not yet a part of our story. Finances were tight, our apartment felt small, and traffic was stressful. Yet when my husband and I look back on that season of early marriage, we talk about it with fondness because of the people the Lord put into our lives...
Encouragement Through Letter Writing
SHARON ROCKWELL | CONTRIBUTOR Paul wrote a letter to the Colossians from prison. It is a love letter, one that was meant to encourage the Christians in Colossae. Though Paul had never visited Colossae, while in prison he became aware of some false teaching that had taken hold. His letter is less a correction of their errors, but more of a reminder of the sufficiency of Christ, and that they were already in union with Christ in His death and resurrection. Paul greets the Colossians with thanksgiving for their faith, for the gospel bearing fruit among them, and emphasizes the mystery of Christ who unites both Jews and Gentiles. We can be thankful for the careful preservation of Scripture that we can read and reread for loving encouragement, hope, and comfort. “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth” (Col. 1:3-6)...
