beautifully purple

One summer when I was at CYIA camp (Christian Youth In Action), my mom sent me a small purple journal that was beautifully decorated with beads.   The book was too pretty to treat as something ordinary, so I turned it into my "encouragement book".   At the end of the 2 weeks of training in 2002, I asked all of my friends to write in it for me.   Encouragement is such an important part of my life-source so this book created an avenue for me to document sweet memories and preserve kind words. 

What I didn't realize when I initially passed this book around was that years later, it would serve as a window into my character at that point in my life.   This book survived 2 CYIA training camps and 2 mission trips.   Despite the fact that this book represents a pretty substantial amount of my teenage years, the messages are consistent.  People thanked me for encouraging them, noted my leadership and affirmed a gifting in teaching.  It's been almost a decade since this my encouragement book received it's first letter and something tells me that if I had people write in it today, I would find similar themes scrawled on the pages of this beautifully purple book. 

I share all of this, only to say 2 things:
First, that it is important to tell people why you value them.   
Second, God is capable of making known to us exactly who He wants us to be far earlier than we expect Him to.   Time just yields more opportunities to be sanctified and refined.