Just after our warm summer morning of pickleball play at my community, we cooled off in the comfort of the huge trees close by. We had several good rounds of competitive play. It felt good to just sit and give kudos to each other for games well played.
I love this community. Most are patient, kind and tolerable to each other in whatever we\u2019re doing. For those who never played any kind of racket or paddle ball, the proficient pickleball players are forgiving when having to slow their game for them.
Some players have the tendency to be emphatic with calling \u201cinside\u201d ball \u2013 out and an \u201coutside\u201d ball in \u2013 even if they\u2019re on the other side of the court. It can get controversial for those who believe \u201cwinning-is-everything\u201d. Sometimes we remind each other \u201cthis is just a game and not a life-or-death matter”. Of course, there\u2019s that inbred competitive nature of winning we all have. But we remind ourselves if we are people of character, kindness, and mutual respect, we don\u2019t always have to win! We came up with best practices \u2013 like if there\u2019s a controversary \u2013 play the ball again. Simple resolutions to keep the peace.
Yesterday morning, one of my neighbors showed up when I was getting coffee in our common area. Immediately, our conversation was about encouragement. Giving \u201cway to go\u201d comments to each other; \u201cGod showed up for that, didn\u2019t He?\u201d; \u201cI\u2019ve been noticing how hard you\u2019re working at that!\u201d
Then there was the woman talking to another woman in the hallway. I walked up and they drew me into their conversation. One woman was feeling alone and afraid. The other woman was encouraging her. Of course, I put in my two cents worth when the \u201calone and afraid\u201d woman said she didn\u2019t think God cared. My response: \u201cSo you\u2019re walking down the hallway with these feelings and Mary (name changed to protect the innocent) runs into you and is telling you God loves and cares for you. Then, I just happen to show up and am encouraging you. I would say God really, really loves you to have two of His daughters to show up for you!\u201d
This blog is, of course, about encouraging and supporting each other. The \u201cicing on the cake\u201d for me came when I read the \u201cencouragement\u201d to me from a friend as a comment to my blog yesterday. God used him to \u201cspur me on\u201d. And God is doing that through me to you today! \u201cCarry on good and faithful servants!\u201d
I pay these words forward from my friend to you today! I\u2019m spurring you on! ” Amazing! Your words are so encouraging and well said! \u201cAnd let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds\u2026.” (Hebrews 10:24) I consider myself spurred. Thank you.\u201d
Need some ideas for \u201cspurring each other on\u201d? Here you go:
** Send an \u201cencouraging\u201d text, e-mail or make a phone call to a friend or loved one.
** Leave an uplifting sticky note for someone |
** Speak life-giving, positive, uplifting words
** Tell someone how they inspired you
** Let someone know you are praying for them.
** Give a sincere compliment
** Remind someone of who they are in Christ
** Write a kind comment on a blogger\u2019s blog (like my friend)
** Tell the janitor\/housekeeper or maintenance worker that you appreciate them
** Be kind
** Give a high five \u2013 congratulate someone on a job well done
** Smile while telling someone “Have a great and\/or blessed day\u201d!
** Tell a family member you are proud of them
Now, consider yourself spurred on!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Just after our warm summer morning of pickleball play at my community, we cooled off in the comfort of the huge trees close by. We had several good rounds of competitive play. It felt good to just sit and give kudos to each other for games well played. I love this community. Most are patient,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17468,16975,21536,21537],"tags":[2430,1210,711,1769,21531,1719,3064,18106,1720,21534,40,2046,17686,21532,8253,21533,21535,259],"class_list":["post-14834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-competition","category-encourage","category-pickleball","category-spur-on","tag-appreciate","tag-blog","tag-character","tag-christian","tag-competitive-play","tag-compliment","tag-congratulate","tag-controversary","tag-encourage","tag-hebrews-1024","tag-inspiration","tag-kindness","tag-kudos","tag-mutual-respect","tag-pickleball","tag-spur-on","tag-spurring-each-other-on","tag-support"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14834"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14836,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14834\/revisions\/14836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}