I'm Still the Same "Angie" #3--Encouraging Notes

By far the most kept items throughout my scrapbooks over the years were hand-written notes.  Literally, hundreds of notes from teachers, friends, my parents, my sister, family members, and elders who were highly influential in my life.  They came to me in all different ways...notes sent home from school, cards once attached to flowers, letters with stamps on them, stickers on report cards, small notes found in my lunch box, intricately folded notes from school friends, and messages written on the sides of cards.  All of them expressing their encouragement, appreciation, love, or affirmation of either something I had done or simply who I was.  Here are some examples of what I found...

 

 

When I finished going through them all, I had an overwhelming sense of the "feel goods" running through my body and that's when it hit me...I'm still the same "Angie".  To this day, receiving notes of encouragement and affirmation is my #1 love language.  If a person wants to really strike my heart of hearts, somehow write it out to me and I will eat it up and be filled.  I don't know why God wired me this way, but I have come to know it, understand it, and appreciate it over the years.  It is who I am.   Obviously, this is the Angie I have always been.  Ever since 1st grade I must have really enjoyed and thrived on receiving notes.  If they didn't speak my love language back then I'm sure I would have tossed them in the trash after reading them, but that is not what happened.  No, they did not get tossed in the trash...oh no...they got put under the plastic protective covers of my scrapbooks to always be remembered and cherished.

I am not sure who all reads my blog, but if you are reading this and were one of the many who have given me notes over the years, can I publicly thank you here?  You have no idea what they have meant to me.  You have no idea the love and acceptance and appreciation I have felt and been built up on by your willingness to take a moment out of your day to tell me something nice.  Your words have been fuel to my soul over the years and I am so grateful for them.  I have kept so many of your notes as reminders of the love that abounds in this world.  When days are hard, I have an arsenal of blessings to go to and remember.  I thank God for each of you today for speaking my love language and showing me how much you care.

For those of you who still make a habit of writing notes to other people...thank you!  I am sure I am not alone out there in the world.  I am sure there are others who need to hear how much they are loved and appreciated through the written word.  I'm sure there is still a little first grader somewhere who is thriving on the hope their first grade teacher will be like my first grade teacher--a teacher who went above and beyond her teaching gifts to simply write note after note after note of encouragement to her students.  I'm sure there is a daughter or son out there who needs a smile today as they open up their lunch box at school to find a note hidden amongst the food letting them know they did a great job on their report for class.  I'm sure there is a youth member who needs to know from an adult in their congregation that they matter in the body of that church and in the body of believers.  I'm sure there is still a young woman or young man who needs us to be speaking their love language of written affirmation to simply make it through another day.  I want to encourage all of us to take a moment out of our day today to be the one who writes a note for whoever just came to your mind.  It could be something they cherish in a scrapbook of their own for many, many years to come.

"Therefore encourage one another and build each other up,

just as in fact you are doing."

~I Thessalonians 5:11