What if you received a letter that started with this much affection for you?

Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother:

To Philemon our dear friend and coworker, to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church that meets in your home.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I always thank my God when I mention you in my prayers, because I hear of your love for all the saints and the faith that you have in the Lord Jesus. I pray that your participation in the faith may become effective through knowing every good thing that is in us for the glory of Christ. For I have great joy and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.

That kind of letter could change your day, or your week. You would save it (maybe for a couple thousand years).

So what if you wrote a letter of encouragement today?

If you mail a letter tonight, it will be the first mail someone gets in the new year. It could be your first mail, since you could write to yourself. It could be someone else’s first mail.

It could be a letter or a postcard or a note written on the back of a receipt. I don’t care. But the person receiving it will. Because you could set the tone of the new year by saying to someone simply, “I notice you.”

If you don’t send anything, their first mail may be an invoice or a grocery ad or nothing. For less than a dollar, you can shape a whole year. Or at least five minutes.

Don’t have an address? You could use a search engine. You could email them and as for it. Don’t want to write a letter? Write a post card. Have a hard time writing? Send an email.

But you could change someone’s day.

Now. Do it.