My big brother used to pick on me. For Dee no day was complete unless he had made mine miserable. He stole my allowance. He called me a sissy.
But all his cruel antics were offset by one great act of grace on a summer day in the park. He picked me to play on his baseball team. Everyone else was a middle-schooler. I was a third-grader. I went from the back of the pack to the front of line, all because he picked me. Dee didn’t pick me because I was good. He called my name for one reason only. He was my big brother. And on that day he decided to be a good big brother.
The New Testament has a word for such activity– encouragement. “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11). This is how happiness happens.
