“Liz Curtis Higgs tweeted me back!” I told whoever I thought would listen. I had tweeted about Liz Curtis Higgs’ book 31 Verses to Write on Your Heart, and she responded. She just thanked me for reading her books. She had no way of knowing that her tweet would make my day (and my week). And yet, it did.
When I told my older sister, she mentioned how small things like a tweet can encourage someone’s day. I realized that a lot of the things that I think of as huge encouragements to me were actually small things that people used to tell me “I care about you, and I like what you’re doing.” I’m starting to see the internet less as a “necessary fact of life,” and more as a tool. Little encouragements can transform someone’s day, and the internet is a great way to give little encouragements, even to people that I don’t know well.
Because I realized this, I decided to challenge myself. For the next 20 days, I will encourage someone online. If you want to try it with me, here are some ideas:
- Leave a comment. Tell a blogger whose writing you love how much you appreciate their hard work making quality content. Since I started blogging, I realized how much a nice comment can completely lift a blogger’s day. Even though it takes less than a minute to write, it means a lot.
- Try emailing from their “contact” page, and encourage them. This can be a good alternative to commenting if you don’t have a specific post that helped you.
- Tweet someone. Just like the Liz Curtis Higgs incident, a tweet can make someone’s week. Plus, it shows your followers cool people that they might want to follow.
- Send them a personal Birthday message. A friend that I didn’t know very well sent me a really nice message on Facebook on my Birthday, and this meant far more than a plain “Happy Birthday!” on my timeline, because he took the time to make the message personal. This inspired me to think more about Birthday messages online.
Try encouraging people online with me for 20 days. You may be surprised by the difference it makes in someone’s life. If you decide to try it, let me know in the comments how you’re going to encourage someone for day 1. You can do this!
