How a Simple Google Search is Making my Day

Here I go again, coming up with ideas for (what I hope) are lovely blog posts. Sometimes I just get super curious about things, and today I’m loving on one of my favorite words. I did a quick Google search for synonyms to this word, and I’m absolutely loving the results. Today, I want to process the beauty of this word.

Affirmation.

This is the balm for my weary soul. It’s the thing that keeps me going. It’s the thing that I crave and am so, so thankful for when it’s given in genuineness. This is life to me, and breathes life back into my dry bones. It really does “lift my spirits,” and pave the way for me to grow as a person and a friend.

With my Google search - “synonyms for affirmation” - a few words in particular stood out to me: declaration, proclamation, assurance, vow, promise, confirmation.

Is that not just the most spectacular thing? What a wonderful list of synonyms, all getting at the heart behind the beauty of affirmation. Affirmation isn’t just encouragement, it isn’t just seeing the beauty and potential in others and calling that to mind. It isn’t just thinking amazingly kind things about people and then telling them those things, it’s also so much more. It’s declaring that goodness in others (and ourselves). It’s proclaiming - shouting from the rooftops! - what we love about others (and ourselves). It’s giving someone the assurance of our love and affinity for them (and ourselves) by our kind words. We’re vowing to others our commitment to them through what we say in love. And it’s promising kindness to others, confirming to them how much we really care.

I’m so in love with this idea, the heart behind genuine affirmation, because it points to just how amazing true and genuine love for others can really look like. This doesn’t just relate to “The 5 Love Languages” and how culturally mainstream those ideas are these days, but also how words of affirmation specifically broaden our view of someone, and help us to fix our gaze on the beauty we see in and outside of them.

I find that so much - way more than the exterior - of the beauty we can recognize in others is what’s in their heart. The heart of this matter is a matter of heart. When we can affirm others of the awesome they are and that they embody, we’re confirming for them just how beautiful their heart is.

This all doesn’t negate the fact that we all have some ugly inside of us and our hearts, too. We’re far from perfect. We’re far from perfectly good and having all of our heart’s motives and intentions fixed on goodness, genuineness, and kindness. We fail and fall short. And yet, good overcomes evil - not by evil - but by genuine goodness. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21).

It’s a good thing to both recognize - and hold in tension - how far from perfect we are with the beauty of just how pure and good our hearts can be. We all have the potential for greatness. And when we affirm both ourselves and others of that potential, we allow our future beauty to press into our present moment.

I don’t know about you, but I want to pull my future into my present. I want to expect great things, pursue great things, and allow myself to be enveloped in goodness and the joy that comes from that. I want to see where I’m heading, and become more assured of the great future I want to live into. I do genuinely think the heart of affirmation is certainly love, but also equally as much, it’s about joy. And we find so much joy in growing as people, become more and more like the goodness we see in others, and the goodness we see in the One who matters most.

So much of the affirmation I experience from others fuels my joy, gratitude, and desire to continue growing as a person. With every kind word given in love, with every genuine compliment, with every encouragement, I’m finding I want to embody even more of the things I’m being affirmed of. That’s an incredible thing: that the life and love that comes from being affirmed doesn’t just stop there. It’s keeping getting better!

I’ll leave you all with this today: how can you embody the beautiful things people have said to you? How can you pay that affirmation forward? What’s one thing you absolutely love about yourself, and one thing you love about another? Maybe remind yourself of that thing you do really well, and tell that friend what goodness you see in them, too.

The best is yet to come!