There I sat amidst a pile of cards that I had received over the years from my parents, siblings, and close friends. I was packing up my closet and came upon this treasured envelope of keep sakes. I had kept these cards for a reason. There were welcome home cards from my siblings, valentine’s cards from my brothers, encouragement cards from my Aunt and best friend and now sister-in-law. The earliest was from my 13th birthday. Each year my mom and dad had wrote me a birthday letter. This was not just any ordinary card. It expressed in detailed form all that they loved and admired about me and my growth in godliness. I began reading through each one. Tears started rolling down my eyes.
“I’m so proud of you.”
“I love to see how you are growing in virtue.”
“Thank you for being so reliable. We count on you. You are a huge help to our family.”
And on and on..
Such sweet encouragement that I am so loved. Reading them on this day, over 12 years since their signed date, and they still impact me. They still challenge me onwards in the upward call of following Christ Jesus.
Dear friends, never underestimate the power of love and expressing it through written form. Verbal is valuable. But written form is a keepsake.
I sat there balling and thanking the Lord for His love for me. With so many years passed, and yet my heart is lifted up. Fresh love and overwhelming thankfulness fill my heart. God has truly been good to me.
My little girl comes up to me and tries to comfort mommy with her sweet words, “It’s okay, Mommy.” And she gently rubs my arm and face. I look her in the eyes and realize with fresh inspiration how much I love this sweet gift of life. I grab her in my arms and hold her close. We exchange numerous kisses. “I love you, sweetie. Mommy’s okay. She’s just so happy. She’s so happy to have such a special girl.”
Take a moment and write a note. Write a gift of grace to another. You never know the long term impact your encouraging words can have. Write to your children. Even if they are too young to read. Journal each year on their birthday all that you admire, appreciate, and treasured memories from the previous year. These will be such a gift to your children when they are grown and gone.
These are treasured moments. Every moment is a gift. Live in light of it!
“But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Hebrews 13:3
How ca you practically seek to love and encourage those around you today?
I loved your post about writing letters. My sweet grandmother passed away almost 4 years ago and she loved to write. She wrote notes to us for any occasion and sometime for no occasion at all. I have cherished her letters more and more with the passing years. I just found one the other day and I cried and cried thinking about how much she loved me and how much she prayed for me. She was a woman of prayer. This is just a great reminder to do the same thing. Her letters are her lasting gift to me.
I was just thinking of this last night. Actually I was considering writing one up for each family member (mom, dad, sisters and brother) for Christmas. This is because we all agree to not buy anything and just rejoice that we all get to be together (has not happened in 5 years)! I also like the idea of writing a letter to each child for their birthday, it is very precious!
I keep a journal for my daughter and will for my son when he is born. My husband and I also have a journal that we pass back and forth with each other.
Thank you so much for your words of encouragement and reminders about the written word. I have been trying to decide if i do Christmas cards or not but after reading your post today I am going to work on them and get them out by the end of this week.
Hope you have a great week.
Thank you Lindsay for your inspirational words. I always find more peace when I read your posts. Thank you!
So that’s why I keep a stack of letters and cards from family members
I know they are just memories, but they are good memories.
Even though my daughter is only 5, I put a little “I love you” note in her lunchbox frequently! Hopefully one day, she too will do that with her children!! Thanks!!
I’m glad I’m not the only one who has a box of cards from when I was little! Sometimes I feel dumb keeping them (they don’t contain lovely letters like yours, just a few treasured words) but have never been able to throw them out.
I keep a notebook OPEN on a shelf just off my kitchen so that writing down cute snippets that my children say is as easy as possible. I would never remember otherwise, and it is a gift for my children – to know how much they were loved and cherished even when they were young and made so much work for mommy!
Thank you for encouraging such a wonderful practice – encouraging others with our words. Special notes to my children mean so much to them – I can see it in their smiles as they read them. Sometimes I will write a longer note, expressing how much I love them and why I appreciate them, other times it’s a little toothpick stuck in their half-apple with a little note attached to the top in the shape of a ship’s sail. As for journaling for my kids… I started doing this about 3 years ago and I am SO glad that I did. As I read back over what I have written I am amazed at the little things that I have forgotten (or would have forgotten, had I not journaled them). I am no scrap-booker, and am so very uncreative. And I knew that it would be difficult to take the time needed to hand-write in an actual journal all the precious things that I wanted to remember. So I just created a Word document on my laptop for each of my 3 kids. I’m a fast typer so it’s easy to open up the Word file and jot something down. It doesn’t have to be pretty (although that would be nice!), it just needs to capture the memory.
This post is so timely! I’m terrible at expressing my emotions, but I recently wrote a letter to a dear friend telling her how much I love, appreciate, and admire her and thanking her for being a godly example to me, but since I have trouble with my emotions, it has been sitting on my entry table with a stamp on it ready to send for 3 days, and I wasn’t sure if I should send it. This was confirmation for me… after I read this, I walked down the street and stuck the letter to the mail box! Thanks for this timely post!
What a great reminder that we can give such a great gift to those we love. It encourages me to write notes to my own children. Thanks for sharing!
This year for my daughters first birthday we made her a treasure box and wrote her a letter to go inside it. HOpefully this will be a tradition that we will be able to keep every year! I agree that its a wonderful thing to do.
I would like to add my 2 cents on journaling about your children. Obviously, with small children, you are always busy and have little time to write long detailed journals. So here is my answer. I do this myself and also buy and give these as baby shower gifts too.
Just buy a small weekly date book/planner. They are usually a 5×7″ book with one week per 2 page spread. Look for one with a bookmark or ribbon to keep your place. Keep it on your dinner table and take just a minute at breakfast or dinner time to write one thing your child said or did that day or the day before. The boxes are predated even! A small box makes me feel better. If I buy a notebook or journal with large blank pages, I feel guilty for not writing very often or very much. Then, since the books are dated by year, it is easy to keep them in a box and give them to your child later.
Something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Compact-Engagement-Calendar-Weekly-Planner/dp/1441302573/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&qid=1291672840&sr=8-18
But you can find them at local stores in tons of colors, usually at a better price.
Thank you so much for this post. I am a student, in the midst of exams at the moment, and this post was a wonderful reminder for me that the amazing people in my life are far far more important than all this studying I am doing. I recently moved and came across a folder of letters, notes and cards from my family and friends as well. These notes are such a wonderful reminder that we are loved and that we have the ability to love through our words as well. I think I will write a letter or two tonight!
Thanks for the reminder and the inspiration.
Lindsay, this is such a beautiful reminder. In today’s modern-age, it can be so quick to just send a text message, email, or online note . . . but we need to remember about the long-term “treasure” of a hand written letter. I just had a discussion with one of my college kids about this. Thanks for the reminder. Beautiful!!!
How precious! I once was listening to a christian radio program where one mother stated that she has a journal for each child in which she writes cute things the child said or did. Years passed and I still think it is such a good idea–how many of us will remember cute things our child said 3 weeks from now? Anyhow I was just thinking it would be so sweet to give them the journal as a gift when they get married –definately priceless.
Well said Lindsay. I keep a lot of cards that I have recieved and sometimes I think I should throw them out….but I am like you and love to reread them. I will keep hanging on to them and every once in a while I will read them for some inspiration and uplifting!
I really appreciate your blog. You are a great person.
Just today I decided to email a friend to thank her for a lovely gift she gave me several years ago. I often try to do this when I use gifts and am reminded of their kindness and thoughtfulness. It really does mean a lot. This is a great post; thanks for sharing.
That is so sweet, I love to write and this might be a way to show my daughter in words how I feel. I do talk to them and praise them daily but something about hand written cards or letter are special in their own ways!
Thank you for sharing; it made me cry. It also gave me an idea to give letters for Christmas because there is not a budget for gifts this year.
Thank you~
A great reminder of how fast the time passes.
We have three children (two are now teenagers).
What a great tradition to even begin now…
My husband and I have a Christmas tradition that is similar to what you’ve described here. We always wrap our gifts in butcher paper or paper grocery bags to save money. Throughout the year, we allow our boys (1 and 3 yrs) to paint on the paper that we’ll use for our families’ gifts but we wrap theirs in plain brown and write a letter to them on the paper (they only receive one gift from us), and I take a picture of the letter on the night before Christmas. We read the letters to them before the gift is opened, but the picture perserves the letter which will, no doubt, be destroyed in the opening process. My plan is to make the pictures into a book to give to the boys on their first Christmas in their married homes or, if God’s will is for them to remain single, their first Christmas in their own home.
Isn’t it amazing how the words of others can touch us – no matter how long it has been since the words were spoken or written? I love getting a card or a letter or even an email with such sweet words – and from my parents it means even more. I’m glad you got to take that walk down memory lane.
My husband always makes fun of me for keeping my old cards and letters. But like you, I cherish them and reading them gives me a lift. I hope my daughter will save and appreciate the written cards and notes I give her.
How lovely to read about the way written encouragement still blesses you today! I have a stash of cards also and went through them recently, working out which ones I really want to keep. This year I have been encouraged as I’ve sought to exhibit thankfulness through writing thank you notes to people. For a while I was doing it each Sunday and so I was challenged to think of people to be grateful to. It is fun to think of ways to bless others through thanking them and letting them know that I see God’s grace at work in in their lives. I have especially enjoyed thanking others for things they would not have expected someone to notice or comment upon, and several people have let me know that they were blessed as a result. This has been a simple way to encourage others from my home, and I have enjoyed sending the notes through the post as it is always so nice for people to receive “real” hardcopy mail.