If you do any shopping at all you know the cost of milk, eggs, and gasoline, but have you ever considered the cost being an encourager? Communication has gone beyond what any of us could have imagined, but I wonder what the ease of communication has cost us?

Research says that people are more connected than ever, yet we have fewer close friends. Depression is up and antidepressants are prescribed in greater numbers than ever before. Our society is blessed to have a wide array of conveniences that makes our life much easier than any generation to date in so many respects.

So why are we not happy? Mother Theresa once said after visiting our country that we have a poverty of loneliness like she never witnessed on the streets of Calcutta. She made that comment after visiting a nursing home, but I think it can be applied to some extent to our population in general.

What does it cost you to send an encouraging note to someone? What does it cost you to hold a door open for someone, to allow the car beside you to merge into your lane, or to let someone go ahead of you in the checkout lane? What does it cost you? Nothing!

Something happens when we help someone. We feel better, and we have lifted the spirits of another at the same time. I have had numerous people tell me that I have made their day. So, I have a challenge for you. Why not look for someway to encourage someone every day. Keep it simple. You will be amazed at the change it makes in you.

As you have come to expect in my writings, there is no greater group that needs encouragement than seniors in care centers and who are shut-in at home. As you seek to be an encourager, don’t forget a senior near you.

Stan Means
Elder Source Senior Ministries