My husband truly is a wonderful man. Yes he infuriates me at times, but, if I’m completely honest that’s normally my fault rather than his! But… on the whole… he is wonderful. He copes with my melt downs, he supports me no marrter what I am doing, he encourages me when I have one of my inane ideas, he is one of the few people who knows who I truly am.

More than I anyone I know, he knows how much I need encouraging, and positivity. He knows it doesn’t need to be anything major, I’m definitely not one for huge shows of embarrassment, but he will encourage however he can.

I recently got a new fitbit, which shows when text messages come up – I have to admit it freaked me out a bit at first! I then discovered that it can only show a certain amount of a text message. So now, quite often when the husband knows that I’m out for a run, in the gym, or working hard he will send me a short message, to encourage me and keep me going.

AH BLESS, all very sweet! This week, however, he surpassed himself and went well and truly above and beyond. Recently he has downloaded the couch to 5K app. has bought some running trainers and shorts, and has started running. Well… he’s gone out twice. Earlier in the week I was a bit low, I was contemplating whether to go for a run or not. I’d got to a point where I couldn’t see what it was actually doing for me, yes I felt better for it, but I saw no results. The husband was trying to encourage me, but I wasn’t haing any of it. I thought it had been forgotten, when he suddenly came out with ‘I was actually thinking of going for a run as well’!

He normally runs in the morning, whereas I run in the evening; we wouldn’t be running together as he is still building up to running continuously; and yet he offered. He knew that I would feel better for running, he also knew that I needed an ultra bolt of encouragement. So we went running together, did our 5 minute warm up walk, and then off I went, we did a shorter lap numerous times, I just did a bit more than him. I actually decided to do a shorter distance than normal but at a quicker pace. Then we found each other and walked back home together, sweaty palm in sweaty palm.

I don’t know for sure that he didn’t intend to go for a run, but I have a good idea that he didn’t, and yet he knew that that was what he needed to do at the time.

I’m struggling with numerous things at the moment, which I am sure I will share at the appropriate time in the future. But to know that there are people who will give the encouragment needed is such a God send. I know it is something I talk about a lot, but please try to encourage those around you, no matter how small and simple it may seem, it will probably mean a heck of a lot more to them than you will ever know!