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Naval Station - Norfolk, Virginia
Sally

We Need to Encourage Each Other

In the military, we are sometimes our own worst enemies. How many times have well meaning friends given you their 30-second rundown of the new post you’re moving to, telling you all the negative things but none of the positive things about the area?

A couple of moves ago, we decided we should do something about this, beginning with our own attitudes. We started telling our kids some fun things to do at the new post and in general tried to be positive. My son shared some of these things with a friend and his mother one day. It concerned the mother so much, that she came and shared what my son had said, then proceeded to ask me if I had ever visited this post. She felt I was not giving my child a true picture. I told her I knew all the negative things about the post, but that we were choosing to highlight the positive, so our family would not go with a bad opinion already formed.

This turned out to be a huge blessing. Yes, there were negative’s, please don’t think I am an ostrich with my head stuck in the sand. However; the blessings God provided to us there, far outweighed the negatives. I would challenge you, next time you get an opportunity to give someone your 30- second rundown of a place, lead off with the positives.

It is written in I Thessalonians 5:11
'Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.'