By Doug Creamer

My supervisor asked me and a co-worker if we could help her with a program she was presenting at the college one evening. After a bunch of phony excuses and lots of teasing, we agreed to be there to help. I have done awards ceremonies before and I know from experience it takes a team to get the job done right.

When we arrived the place was already humming. There must have been about six of us there, all doing various things to get ready for the program. The awards stage was set up. We put tablecloths out. We got the food and drinks for the reception nicely displayed. There are so many details to a program like that.

The program was to induct new members into the National Adult Education Honor Society. The teachers collaborated with the supervisor to determine who would be nominated for the award. There are specific criteria that the candidates had to meet in order to be nominated. The winners were all outstanding students.

The program began with a guest speaker who had experienced every unlucky break in her young life. These bad breaks led her down a path to a life filled with drugs, alcohol and time spent in jail. She even shared a story where she was shot in the stomach multiple times.

She shared that through some people at the community college who believed in a better future for her, she was able to begin to believe in a better future for herself. She took some classes, worked at the community college and earned her associates degree. She went on to the university to earn her bachelor’s and master’s degree.

Then she returned to the place and the people who believed in her and now works full-time at the community college. She is an energetic and compassionate person who can help others because she understands the challenges and difficulties of life. She is a true advocate for students and a blessing to everyone she meets.

My supervisor took the stage and began by honoring her supervisor and the teachers that she supervises. We have a great team led by two outstanding supervisors. Next, my supervisor spoke about each of the students we were there to honor. She pointed out specific character qualities each student possesses, thereby bringing honor to each one of them. She imparted her faith in them and seeds of hope for the great future she envisions for each of the students.

Isn’t that something we all need, someone who sees the potential in us that we can’t see? I can remember two men in the Boy Scouts who saw leadership potential in me when I was young. I feel indebted to them for all they did to help me grow up and become a man. I can also look back on my faith and I remember another man who poured into me so much and asked for nothing in return. The deposits he made have produced great fruit in my life.

Growing up spiritually requires effort on our part. We have to do the work of reading and applying the scriptures to our lives. We have to invest our time in prayer and fellowship with God our Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The third thing we have to do is to be around people who are mature in the faith so they can invest in our lives and help us on our journey of faith. No one can or is supposed to walk out their faith alone.

I think one of the most important steps in our faith is when we reach the point where we are making deposits in other people’s lives. We aren’t supposed to take everything in and keep it; we have to give it away. The lost need to hear that there is hope and a way to salvation. The discouraged need a word of encouragement and a helping hand. God sends people like you and me to be His hands and His voice through the darkness to help them into the light.

I want to encourage you to consider how you can lift up someone else. There are people you will see today who need an encouraging word and God may be sending you to them. There are people who are lost who need you to shine your light of God’s love on them. There are also people in your life whom you should thank and honor for many deposits they have made in you. When we lift each other up we are doing what Jesus does, and that is the best thing we can do.

Contact Doug Creamer at PO Box 777, Faith, NC 28041 or doug@dougcreamer.com.