The other day, I talked to siblings who lost a parent. “We lost our other parent two months ago,” they said. “And this one’s been ready to go.”

During the two months, they listened to stories and wrote them down. They lived. They had grandchildren and great-grandchildren check in.

If you have an extra couple months, listen to stories and write them down.

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“Your mom does a great job of balancing this part of the job and that part of the job.” I had the opportunity to visit with the adult child of a coworker. It was just a visit, the kind a chaplain likes to make. But I made sure that I talked about the good work of my coworker.

I do the same thing when talking with parents of coworkers. I want them to know that their kid (now all grown up) is making a difference.

If you have the chance to praise someone to someone who loves them, be specific and offer the praise.

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Sometimes we let our insecurity convince us that our words of encouragement don’t matter. We sometimes think that our hello is meaningless, that our note or our offer of a sandwich won’t make a difference. The odds are that four in ten of the people we encourage needs it. Three in ten needs the sandwich. two in ten needs the note.

And that one person? Stop letting that one person get in the way of the help the other nine need.

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A reminder that July 16, 2020 will be the 3,000th post here at 300WordsADay.com. I’m celebrating by raising $3,000 for the 22 children at House of Hope.

Read more at “Small steps, a few words, add up.”

And please contribute at Project Rescue – Jon Swanson. I’d say “thank you” but the kids are even more thankful.