By Glenn Dromgoole

Nancy Patrick is a regular contributor to Spirit of Abilene. Her pieces are upbeat, thoughtful, insightful. I always enjoy what she has to say.

Nancy also writes something else very well, something we all should do more of.

Nancy writes compliments.

Compliments.

I wrote a light-hearted piece last week about how I love chicken legs, or drumsticks. There wasn’t much to it – just a kind of fun thing about eating 11 chicken legs at church when I was a boy.

Nancy wrote, “I love your stories. They make me smile. (My favorite piece was the pulley bone, and Mom did fry the chicken in a cast iron skillet!)”

Nancy Patrick

A simple thing. A compliment. It made my day. 

And it made me think about all the opportunities we have to offer compliments. It doesn’t take a lot of time, but it might lift someone’s spirit.

That was a delicious meal.
Very good sermon, pastor.
I thought you handled that situation well.
You have a beautiful voice.
That’s a pretty dress, or colorful tie, or interesting hat.
I like your shoes.
You obviously take a lot of pride in what you do.
Good job.
You have a great smile. Thank you.

This week I’m going to try to be more like Nancy Patrick. 

Glenn is the author of A Few Encouraging Words. He and Carol own Texas Star Trading Company downtown. Contact Glenn at gdromgoole44@gmail.com.