Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Silver Boxes, Gifts of Encouragement (Part 2)

           Will I give silver boxes to those who’ve hurt me?

          Remember the classmate I mentioned in Part 1—the one who tormented me with a word that’s no longer even acceptable to use? Let me tell you what happened more than five decades later:

          When I “joined” Facebook in 2011, I thought about looking up this girl. That thought grew into a burden. I’d despised her previously, but no malice now. Just wondering if I would heal that memory if I found her.

          Would you believe I did? There she was on Facebook—plain as day. So, I wrote to her.

          Wonder of wonders, she responded. Not coldly. Instead, genuinely kind.

          As we corresponded over time, this girl shared about hardships in her life—ones I’d never realized. I ached for her although I still didn’t understand why she targeted me back in school; but now I saw she may’ve been “venting” some of what she endured.

          Then it happened. A reply I couldn’t even comprehend.

          This girl shared I was the only friend she had in school.

          Me? The one she called “retard?” Wow!

          I still can’t figure out the psychology behind all this (I basically failed that subject in college because I was…um, “learning-challenged”). But I’m smart enough to know something happened that magically changed when this girl shared her thoughts with me.

          I hadn’t realized what I meant to that girl. I didn’t even try back then. Mostly I dodged corners when I saw her coming. But somehow, she interpreted something I did as being a friend.

          Weird!

          These decades later, as the girl and I exchanged chat messages, a trust grew. Mine. Apparently not hers because she already thought I was a friend.

          Wild!

          So, the time came I was able to share Jesus with this hurting girl—now lady—who, by the way, still suffered from the effects of her childhood-carried-into-adulthood trauma. She graciously received a Bible from me. And she’s responded positively to prayers I cried out on her behalf through typed words.

          I apparently gave this former classmate a silver box way-back-when. She unknowingly gave one back to me. And now I’d been able to give her another—God’s Silver Box, the most important of all but also the means by which she was able to see me as a friend long ago and accept His Word now.

          Wonderful!

 

How I praise Thee, precious Savior, that Thy love laid hold of me;

Thou hast saved and cleansed and filled me that I might Thy channel be.

 

(Refrain) Channels only, blessed Master, but with all Thy wondrous pow’r

Flowing through us, Thus canst use us every day and every hour.

 

Just a channel full of blissing, to the thirsty hearts around’

To tell out Thy full salvation, all Thy loving message sound. (Refrain)

 

Emptied that Thou shouldest fill me, a clean vessel in Thy hand;

With no pow’r but as Thou givest graciously with each command. (Refrain)

 

Witnessing Thy pow’r to save me, setting free from self and sin’

Thou who boughtest to possess me, in Thy fullness, Lord, come in. (Refrain)

 

Jesus, fill now with Thy Spirit hearts that full surrender know;

That the streams of living water from our inner self may flow. (Refrain)

 

(from the hymn, Channels Only, by Mary E. Maxwell, 1900, public domain)

 

 

#encouragingwords #channelsonly #friendship #silverboxes #bullying #beingJesuswithskinon #HolyBible

 

 

Photo credit: wtsbooks.com online image

Tuesday, January 7, 2025

Silver Boxes ~ Gifts of Encouragement (Part 1)

          Oh, how essential encouragement is in these troubled times! Maybe more than ever before. Hearts downcast, economy tanking, and the enemy—the devil—knowing when to strike when we’re at our weakest.

          In my growing up years I struggled with a lot of criticism. By the time I was in what was then called junior high (now middle school), I believed I wasn’t much of anything. I’d even adopted the moniker “retard,” which one classmate heckled me with every time I encountered her.

          Along the way, though, God placed people in my life who lifted me up. They were few, but they—to this day—mean the world to me, most of them now gone from this earth. This handful of folks gave me silver boxes.

          No, there’s not a literal pile of silver boxes in my possession, but their encouragement was nothing less.

         When Brian and I were recently married, he realized I hadn’t been encouraged greatly along the way. We then heard a radio broadcast titled “Silver Boxes” with Florence Littauer. Listening to this reduced me to a puddle of tears. It meant so much that we later bought the audiobook on cassette. And still later, the book—in real live paper form.

          My husband then wrote me a note: May I give you silver boxes for all the ones you’ve missed. That note, which I treasure to this day, was in and of itself a silver box.

          The gift of a silver box—life-lifting words given to another.

          Having thus been blessed now with silver boxes over the years, I find it my mission to gift encouraging words to others.

          Have you received silver boxes in your life? Are you able to share encouraging words to lift others? Or are you one who hungers to hear you’re valued and loved?

          Here’s something else I’ve thought about in more recent years? Do I give silver boxes unknowingly? Or do I secretly wish to withhold them from those who’ve crushed me, feeling they must “earn” them? Hmm.

          More about that in Part 2.

Living for Jesus, a life that is true, striving to please Him in all that I do;

Yielding allegiance, glad-hearted and free, this is the pathway of blessing for me.

 

(Refrain) O Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to Thee,

For Thou in Thy atonement, didst give Thyself for me;

I own no other Master, my heart shall be Thy throne;

My live I give henceforth to live, O Christ, for Thee alone.

 

Living for Jesus Who died in my place, bearing on Calv’ry my sin and disgrace;

Such love constrains me to answer His call, follow His leading and give Him my all. (Refrain)

 

Living for Jesus, wherever I am, doing each duty in His holy Name;

Willing to suffer affliction and loss, deeming each trial a part of my cross. (Refrain)

 

Living for Jesus through earth’s little while, my dearest treasure, the light of His smile;

Seeking the lost ones He died to redeem, bringing the weary to find rest in Him. (Refrain)

 

(from the hymn Living for Jesus by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1917, public domain)

 

Lord God,

          If I live for You, I will give encouraging words to everyone I meet.

Please help me be a giver of silver boxes!

    In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

 

 

#silverboxes #encouragement #livingforJesus #notforreward #soldoutforGod

Photo credit: freepik & online image