This past Sunday, I sang on the worship team for church. Not only that, I led one of the songs, the first time I've ever led a worship song. And I'm not gonna lie, I was CRAZY nervous. I'm really insecure about my voice, and though I love singing, singing with a microphone makes me very uncomfortable and doubtful of my abilities. But it was made much easier through the support of those around me.
The other team members know how much I've struggled with this, and they were all SO encouraging! It was really cool. During practice, I messed up on the song. I finished it, but I was pretty upset afterwards. I had no confidence that anything would change for the service and I was so uncomfortable. But a whole bunch of people came up and told me what a great job I did, and that was really encouraging! I may not have shown it at the time, but it really did mean a lot to me.
I'm so grateful for all those people. Encouragement is such a beautiful thing. There are times when I want to compliment a person, but I don't, for one reason or another. If you go through that, please do encourage them! Like I said, I'm very insecure about my voice. I'm sure we all have at least one thing we don't like about ourselves, and when someone comes up and compliments you on that, it really means a lot. Knowing that you have friends and family who have your back can really have an impact on you!
It's also in Scripture to encourage others! The Bible says, "Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing." (1 Thessalonians 5:11) This can be hard to do sometimes, as maybe it feels uncomfortable, but it is what God wants. We are meant to strengthen each other and build each other up. It really made me happy to see the encouragement and support that I got from leading that song!
"Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!" --Ecclesiastes 4:9-10