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There are many ways that I encourage myself. I started realizing certain things encouraged me as a teenager. Now as a wife and mother, I continue to do things that are uplifting.

As a teenager I did a lot of singing. I learned a lot of songs at church. As I went about my day, singing was there to focus my mind. When I do tasks that are easy like washing dishes, my mind starts to wander. Usually my mind starts to worry about stuff. When I catch myself and start singing, I find much more encouragement, enjoyment, and peace of mind. Sometimes I don'tt feel like singing, but I found a verse in the Bible that talked about giving God a sacrifice of praise. Hebrews 13:15 says, "Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name." Even when there are times I don't feel like singing, that verse comes to mind. Singing never fails me. I end up being encouraged.

Another way that I was encouraged as a teen was to have something to look forward to. At that time of my life it was going to horse shows. I would mark off the days on a calendar waiting for the day to arrive. I had something to work on during that waiting time. I practiced my horse for the different events that were coming up. Now that I find horse shows too expensive to go to, I have replaced the shows with other events. Some of my encouraging events may be as simple as giving myself an alloted time to read or do some other enjoyable activity. I have to be careful, though, in these encouragement times that I don't over do them. Rewarding myself is encouraging, but I must fit the reward with the task involved. If I vacuumed and cleaned all morning, then the afternoon was free to go to the park with the children. However, looking back on some events in my life, I felt that the encouragement part sometimes took more time than needed, and then the housework didn't get done. That ended up being discouraging. I had to learn to balance my work and play.

Some people like to work on their hobbies for encouragement. They like to see the project slowly take shape. I like to do this too. Whether it's working up a song on my guitar, or crocheting a scarf, doing that project a little each day encourages me to keep at it to the end. The fun part is to sing and play the song for the family or friends, or to give the scarf away. Seeing the look of surprise on a persons face and knowing that you brought joy to them is definitely encouraging to me.

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