Cheerleaders

They said they would be there. They were there last year. As I came up on Mile 4, I began to
search the crowd. And as I rounded the corner, there they were - my cheerleaders.

Two sisters-in-law and my 92-year-old father-in-law, complete with clanging bells and cameras. And they were there just for me.

I can't begin to tell you what it's like to have someone cheering just for you. In this case, it was my family. But all along the route today, there were complete strangers cheering for me by name (okay, so maybe my name on my bib helped). But they were there, urging me on and encouraging my efforts. And I kept going and finished.

We all need cheerleaders in this life, to keep us going in good times and bad. We need people who believe in us and in what we're doing, and who want to be there - just for us. We need someone to be there to encourage us to keep at it, whether it be a complete stranger or our dearest friend. And sometimes, if we're really blessed, we get to be that cheerleader for someone else. Because in the end, we don't really give encouragement away - we just multiply in ourselves when we share it with someone else.