Encourage Others by Making a Difference

Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.
– 1 Thessalonians 5:11

A father and son walked along a beach after a powerful storm. In fact, the storm had been so strong that as the waves crashed and the wind blew, hundreds of starfish were washed ashore and left far from the water they needed to survive.

As they walked, the father and son began a rescue mission, picking up starfish one by one and throwing them back into the ocean. When the boy looked at the hundreds of remaining starfish, he became discouraged. “Dad, there are too many. We can’t save them all. We can’t make a difference!”

The father looked at the starfish in his hand. The creature would have never made it back to the ocean on its own. As he threw the starfish into the water, he told his son, “We’re making a difference to this one.”

You can make a difference too, even if it’s only one by one. God has called each of us—not just the pastor or the missionary—to be a voice of encouragement to someone.

Bless someone. Make a difference.