Feed your heart. Feed your soul. Do not feed your ego. Do not feed another's. When you bolster others, remind yourself that it is not their ego you are bolstering. Helping someone feel good about himself or building their ego isn't the same.
There is a difference between praise and appreciation. Praise sometimes just flips off the tongue. Appreciation, however, can exist only in truth. Be sure that you are speaking your truth. Your purpose is not to fluff another's feathers. Your purpose is to commit positive truth.
You are a builder of men. Build them with truth. Appreciation is the house. Extended praise is only trim. You don't want it to be fancy. Sometimes you get carried away with your words of praise, and they can become hollow. Watch out for overblown praise. It is a stretch. No need to exaggerate.
In the desire to encourage others, some of My children need to say less. Of course, some of My children need to say more. If you are stingy with voicing appreciation, work on it. A kind word is worth gold. Yet words require truth behind them. You would not give counterfeit coin to another, so do not deal in counterfeit words.
One of the best things you can do for your own sense of self is to always commit truth. Simply don't say anything unless it is true. You don't make assurances or promises unless you follow through on them. You make them true. If you say you will tidy your room, then tidy your room. If you say you will pick up something at the store, why, then pick it up.
When Abraham Lincoln as a boy walked miles to repay a penny, the point is not so much that he repaid the penny. The point is he did what he said he would do. And so must you.
Sometimes you are so busy, so caught up, that you haven't thought of what is true. You may have just gone along with words because it was easier and it bought you time. Meaningless words are … meaningless. You want every word of yours to be meaningful.
When you clean house, you don't pretend that you cleaned. The well-intentioned thought of cleaning is not the same as cleaning. When you fix your car, you go through more than motions. You don't kid yourself that you worked on it. You work on it. You make your thoughts come true.
And so with words you use to encourage others. Have them come from a well of truth. Have them come from a deep well.
When you say I love you, you want it to have substance. It may be the right thing to say, but it isn't right without truth.
When you say Thank you, you do not want the words to be a formality. You do not want to merely spit out words the way a candy machine does gumdrops.
Be simple of speech. Make each word you speak be worth its weight in gold. You are a selector of words. You are beading a necklace with your words. Your words are the beads. Make sure the necklace stays together and will not come apart. Tie each bead to the truth. Send out each word the same way the sun resolutely comes out of the east each morning.