Who are You Encouraging?

Yesterday, I was doing some reading on the back porch. I had stayed most of the day in the house, so I was a little frozen from the AC and thought thawing out outside was a good idea. A few weeks ago, a baby cardinal fell out of its nest and was trying to fly out of the backyard. Sam went over and picked it up in his mouth and was going to go do something until I started yelling at him. So he dropped it, and we all went inside. I looked around later in the holly bushes that surround the porch and found a nest but didn't see much going on it there. Yesterday, as I was thawing, a baby, girl cardinal flew at the window right in front of me and crashed to the ground. She chirp and jumped up and flew into the holly bush. I gathered the dogs, and we went into the house but not before I noticed that the mama was already in the holly bush shouting out encouragement. I thought, “How great is that!” Not that she wanted to or could help the baby fly, but she could be close by, and she could shout out encouragement.

It got me to thinking about the people that are around us shouting out encouragement. Do you have any? I do, and I really don't know what I would do without them. Not all of them are right around me either. I get encouragement when you comment on and edit my blog or take time to talk to me on the phone or send me an e-mail. Thank you for encouraging me on this journey. Thank you for listening to me rant and rave about whatever the topic of the day is.

Speaking of ranting, I have to tell you a quick thing that only a few brave people know that have called me on my new iPhone. I have always been a person that holds the phone pinched between my ear and shoulder. I have also always had big cheeks. With these issues, it is hard to talk on an iPhone. I have hung up repeatedly on people, put them on mute or speaker at the drop of a hat, and have just not been a savvy iPhone user. So forgive me and think about that before you call me! I'm one of those people who also thinks I can do other things while talking on the phone, like take out the trash, feed the dogs and walk around the house. I am learning that multitasking is something I shouldn't be doing with this phone. So thanks for the grace and the encouragement ahead of time.