As Long As It Is Called Today

"But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today..." Hebrews 3:13

The other day I tackled a project that has been on my to-do list for several months: clean out our filing cabinet. It was so stuffed to the max, I wasn't able to get anything new in there. I found bank statements from when we banked in Iowa over ten years ago. Why I still had those is beyond me. For sentimental reasons??? Thankfully I am becoming less and less of a pack rat as our family expands!
I had fun looking through our "Youth Group" file, where I had saved flyers and posters from special events we put on for the hi-schoolers at our church over the years.

But the most special file I found was one I had labeled "Correspondence." In it were ten years worth of notes, cards and letters that had been written to me (or to both Dan and me) over the last ten years.
I have a thick stack of printed-off emails (love letters, if you will) that Dan wrote me during the course of my senior year of high school. Email was a brand-new thing back then, and every day, I would go to the Hilhi library during lunch and check my mail. An email came from Dan almost every day. It was so special to read through them again the other day. I hadn't realized how head-over-heels he was for me, even then! =)

I found a poem that my mother-in-law printed off for me the day I was married. I found notes from 2 little girls I used to babysit while I was in high school. They moved across the country a few years after I got married, and they wrote me lots of notes that first year after they moved. There was also a two-paged hand-written letter that their mother sent me to fill me in on how they were all doing. And at the time, she was a mother of five small children! Now I think how special that was that she took the time to write me. I found notes that my young piano students wrote to me, and the first drawing one of my nieces ever colored for me.

But as I sorted through all that correspondence, what was so encouraging were the cards and letters that friends had taken the time to write just to say thank you and I appreciate you. Many were from two special young ladies that Dan and I were in a band with several years ago. These girls were so good about writing notes just to tell us that the appreciated us and loved us.
I found - not TOO many - but a few precious notes from former high-schoolers that we had in youth group, thanking Dan and me for the time we took to spend with them and nurture them. After all the time and energy we put into the youth group for about ten years, what is often a thankless job became sweet again as I looked over those notes from hi-schoolers who had taken a few minutes out of their time to write us.  HAND-written notes nonetheless!
Perhaps the most special thing I found were the cards (many of them green Encouragement Cards from Westside!) that church members have written to us telling us how they have been blessed by our music ministry. A certain letter dated 9/30/2000 even brought tears to Dan and my eyes as we just re-read it. A friend wrote it after Dan's very first Sunday that he ever led worship at our church. Part of the letter reads,

"I missed your service on August 20th. Several people told me it was a great service, so I got a tape. I was absolutely blown away by what I heard...The music was incredible...In my ten years at Westside, I believe your service was one of the best things that took place during Family Bible Hour. I would love to see you do similar services in the future...Thank you so much for impacting others and me with your service."

I have always felt that Dan and I are indebted to the elders at our church for believing in Dan enough to let him become a lead worshipper at the young age of 22. But now that I have re-read that letter, I realize that our continuance in the music ministry is undoubtedly also due to friends like these, who have taken the time to encourage us. "A man has joy in an apt answer. And how delightful is a timely word." Proverbs 15:23

William Barclay writes,
"One of the highest of human duties is the duty of encouragement...It is easy to laugh at men's ideals; it is easy to pour cold water on their enthusiasm; it is easy to discourage others. The world is full of discouragers. We have a Christian duty to encourage one another. Many a time a word of praise or thanks or appreciation or cheer has kept a man on his feet. Blessed is the man who speaks such a word."

Who knew I was in for such a special treat when I cleaned out the filing cabinet?  That thick file is going nowhere.