Attitude of Gratitude - Kind words go a long way

I have always been tall - always. Although an over-achiever, I was also heralded with such titles as the "jolly green giant" (perhaps my aversion to green for so much of my life), amazon, and skyscraper to name a few. At 12 years old and 5'8", let's just say, I stood out. As I entered junior high my confidence would swing between "on top of the world" and incredibly self-conscious. While my parents were always confidence-invoking, they were my parents and I knew, of course, that they were prejudice. Afterall, I was their first born. Across the street lived a family who also had two daughters. Their mother was tall and statuesque and it was rumored she'd been a model (or could have been). One day while I was over visiting my friend, she said to me, "always stand tall and be proud of your height. You are beautiful." I held those words in my heart for a long time. They meant so much to me and I followed them. I walked tall and confidently, regardless of my inner insecurities, her words resounding in my mind on many an occasion. I never forgot her words and she had no way of knowing their impact on my life, but it was as Mother Teresa said, “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.”

Is there a kind word you have for another - even a stranger - that could lift them up today? What is stopping you?

"Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it." (Proverbs 3:27)