Encouraging Others

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.

2 Corinthians 1: 3-7 (NASB)

Isn't it kind of God to comfort us, perhaps (and often) through the counsel of others when we are going through a trial?  And then, He calls us to use this comfort to, in turn, comfort others who are going through trials.  Recently...as in "last week"...God gave me two opportunities to encourage some sweet, young mothers who are facing different trials. And they are trials that are totally different from the trial I went through. But still, my encouragement to them was the same.  But how can the same advice be comforting to both of them?  Well, because it's God's Word - which never changes.

I'm so thankful for the opportunity to comfort others with the comfort with which I have been comforted. Even when my trial was totally different...the same encouragement I got from others can also encourage them. Love it when that happens.