My husband loves football. He enjoys looking at the stats of the game and encouraging his favorite team and players. I will admit, although I have a favorite team, I do not follow it as intently as he does. I sometimes just sit back and smile at his excitement. I even will listen as he tells me all about it. Even if I am not as passionate about the play as he is. I have a huge heart for animals. Although my husband likes animals, he does not get near excited as I do about them. Although when I find cute or funny animal videos online that I want him to watch, he will. He is excited that I enjoyed those videos. My children enjoy video games, I could care or less about gaming of that nature. However, if something cool happens in their game, I am happy for them. Although when they tell me details, I have no idea what their talking about, I still am happy for them. In turn, I love to write; my children not so much. However, they are always excited to read what I’ve written. Friend, sometimes we get excited about things that others maybe do not like as much as us or maybe even not at all; however, we still must be excited for them. Just like when we eagerly tell someone about something we really like, we want them to be happy for us. Maybe we won’t completely understand or have interest in what they are excited about; but, haven’t you my friend, felt happy when the people around you were genuinely happy for you? In this world there are so many people that only care about what makes them happy, though it is so important that we are happy for others too. As long as those interest do not go against God. It is such a wonderful thing when we can share in each other’s joy, despite the differences of what our interest are. God created us all uniquely with different passions and interest. What a wonderful thing it is, that despite those differences, we can share joy with those we love; thus, bringing encouragement to another’s heart!

Erin Fitts-Brower

Philippians 2:4 NIV

not looking to your own interest but each of you to the interest of the others.