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“I can live two months on one good compliment…” — Mark Twain
Jeff Foxworthy recently told a story about being mentored by Truett Cathy. Jeff grew up in the same town as the first Chick-fil-A, back when it wasn’t an empire, just a restaurant cooking up some anointed chicken.
One day Truett asked Jeff, “Do you know how to tell if someone needs encouragement?” “No sir…”Jeff replied. Truett smiled: “If they’re breathing.”
That line changed Jeff’s life. From that day forward, he woke up every morning asking one question: Who can I affirm...who can I encourage today?
What is affirmation?
Here is how I define affirmation: Affirmation is the holy practice of calling out the image of God in a man while strengthening the parts of him that sin and shame have tried to break.
Affirmation seeks to fortify what the world has tried to fracture.
Why Men Need It
Every man you know—no matter his age, income, or toughness—is asking the same silent questions: “Does anyone see me?” “Does my effort matter?” “Am I enough?”
Men carry weight no one applauds.
Most of what makes a man a man happens in silence. He bears responsibility, pressure, fear, and sacrifice, usually unseen. Affirmation doesn’t coddle him. It acknowledges the load.
Most men don’t know how to ask for it.
Women reach out naturally. Men don’t. Affirmation steps into that silence with words of strength, not sentimentality.
Every man fights spiritual discouragement.
Scripture commands daily encouragement because without it a man’s heart grows hard and vulnerable to temptation [Heb. 3:13]. Affirmation is spiritual warfare.
Affirmation reinforces a man’s God-given design.
Men are builders of families, cultures, churches, and businesses. Builders need reinforcement. Affirmation is spiritual rebar.
Most men never heard it growing up.
Most men walk into adulthood with wounds from silence. Affirmation becomes the blessing their father never gave.
Affirmation reflects the voice of God.
God’s words to His sons are never shaming—they strengthen, steady, and call us up. When you affirm a man, you echo the Father.
“There are no ordinary people,” Lewis said in a sermon. “You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.”
Excerpt From
What Good Is God?
Philip Yancey
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