Intentional encouragement...

It's so easy to encourage people in the wrong manner. Advertisements encourage us on a daily basis to try this new 'product' in order to make our lives better. Television shows us the lives of 'so called celebrities' with perfect lives, encouraging people to want what they cannot have.
However this is the opposite of what the bible tells us to do. While reading 1 Corinthians 8 today, I realised that in order for us to encourage one another we must live holy lives, we need to practice what we preach. How can we tell other's how to live if we choose to do something else. In this passage of scripture it talks about eating food from idols, and imposing those rules on new Christians while ignoring the rules themselves. Let's not be religious, but instead, let's love one another, encourage one another and not be a stumbling block for those around us.
How are you going to intentionally encourage someone today? I don't know how I will do this, but I pray that God, through the power of his Holy Spirit, will guide me to encourage those I meet. That I will share the love of God with them and not pass judgement.