I was on the elevator in the Hancock Center in Chicago. A thirty-something woman in a flowery pink dress stepped in. The man I was with, a 60ish mid-level executive, exclaimed, “Wow! What a fantastic dress that is! My goodness. That dress was designed precisely for you.”

The woman blushed and said “thank you.” Any bets on what she remembered for the rest of the day and probably a few days afterwards? Even if she were having a completely rotten day, that genuine compliment from a complete stranger turned that day around. I am still amazed at his brash but honest gesture.

Mark Twain said it best, “I can go for 3 months on a good compliment.”

If there’s one thing in this life I wish I did more, it would be to encourage. As it is, I jokingly put people down in the hopes that I’ll get a good laugh. Of course I hate it when others do it “jokingly” to me. Occasionally I’ll cross the line and offend someone. Almost immediately I know I was out of line. I end up apologizing.

It has been said that at any given time 95% of the people need some sort of encouragement. 95%. Even if you think the statistic is exaggerated, it still says a lot about us. Or putting it a different way, how many times did you wish you were complimented but weren’t? There are lots of things in life that can get you down.

Life can be hard. Bills, bosses, taxes, doctors, dentists, kids, grandkids, work, co-workers, traffic, spouses, yard work, housework, dishes, cooking, cleaning. The list goes on and on. Most of these in themselves are tolerable, but combined they can be overwhelming.

“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another.” Hebrews 10:25.

Encouragement can take many forms. Perhaps it’s just commenting favorably on what a person’s wearing or it can be for a specific job well done. Smiles are encouraging and incredibly contagious. Sometimes a phone call or thank you card is an appropriate form of encouragement.

If you think the action would encourage you (if it were done for you), it would probably encourage someone else. We need to go out of our way to encourage others.

You can never encourage enough.