...to be encouraged by yours

Encourage each other in the faith. - Romans 1:12

I don’t think Paul is telling us to preach to each other or hand out smiley faces. I take his exhortation as a behavior check. Do we exemplify Christian love as we interact with our fellow believers? Do we practice kindness, patience, and generosity of spirit with other Christians? Do we offer TLC to the people in our own congregation or do we take them for granted?

What if we criticized people less and praised more? What if we expected less and contributed more? What if we complained less and thanked more?

What if we just lightened up, loosened up, and loved each other, warts and all? Would it become second nature? Very possibly. - - Carol Mueller

While reading devotionally this morning I came across the excerpt above from a Lutheran Woman Today article. As I try to discipline myself to do, I went further with the scripture, reading more and searching out other thoughts, translations, etc. That's when I read the NLT translation of the verse from Romans:

When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours.

Here's the thing. I probably view criticism from a different stance than many because of David's call to ministry. People who don't live the life of a pastor (or live with a pastor) for the most part have no idea as to how draining it can be. Most have no idea as to how hard criticism, even "blanketed" by phrases meant to soften the blow hits the heart and just plain hurts. So, I'm loving the NLT translation...maybe I'm a whiner, but I don't think so, at least not in this instance.