Pep Talk
The opposite of Trash Talk
Hello again, dear reader. Did you read “Trash Talk”? I hope you did! If you didn’t, please take a minute or two to do so. It will help you flow better with this one. In that piece, we saw what trash talk can do. Today, we will take a little peek into what pep talk can do.
Just in case you are wondering, pep talk is:-
I was reminiscing about a time I was called upon to do something, and nobody around believed that I was up to the task. Okay, not nobody really. There was one person who believed I could do it, and that person was NOT ME! Yep, even I did not believe in myself. (Don’t worry about my past complexes. In Christ, they are destroyed. It is an everyday process.)
This person would encourage and keep telling me, “I believe in you.” Her unwavering faith in me helped develop the necessary faith in myself, and pretty soon, I had stepped up to the plate. Many people were undoubtedly surprised.
What changed? My thinking.
Proverbs 23:7a For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he:
Somebody said, and I quote,
Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, either way, you are right.
What brought back this memory? Well, I was reading a book and saw this:-
A young man who became an employee of our church had previously attended our Christian school and played basketball on the school team. He told my husband, Wally, this story, which brought a smile to my face: Every time he was up for a free throw, I would yell at the top of my lungs, “Come on, you can do it; you’re good, you’re good!” He didn’t think he was really good, but he thought, I’d better be good, because Marilyn is expecting me to be good. You know what? He would always do better than he thought he could.
How important is a free throw? Well, how important is it to build confidence in an individual? The young man never forgot that, and I believe he became a better achiever because I encouraged him to be one.
Total Healing by Marilyn Hickey.
The young man never forgot it, and I, too, so many years later, have not forgotten that dear friend of mine who believed in me when everybody else didn’t.
Here is the Declaration:-
I was initially going to encourage us to work on our thinking, but we have already been through that. In this one, we will make our action point about others. I therefore encourage you to be an encouragement to someone who needs it. Consider how you can stir them up unto good deeds.
Hebrews 10:24 (KJV) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
(TPT) Discover creative ways to encourage others and to motivate them toward acts of compassion, doing beautiful works as expressions of love.
1st Thessalonians 5:14 (KJV) Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.
(TPT) We appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, to instruct those who are not in their place of battle. Be skilled at gently encouraging those who feel themselves inadequate. Be faithful to stand your ground. Help the weak to stand again. Be quick to demonstrate patience with everyone.
Did you see that? Be skilled at gently encouraging those who feel themselves inadequate. Now that’s a skill worth learning.
Enough said.