Hi friends and welcome to today's encouragement from the Our Daily Bread Devotional.

Our reading is titled Being Seen, and it was written by Julie Schwab.

In an article on mentoring, Hannah Schell explains that mentors need to support, challenge, and inspire,

but first and perhaps foremost, a good mentor sees you. Recognition, not in terms of awards or publicity,

but in the sense of simply being seen is a basic human need.

People need to be recognized, known, and believed in.

In the New Testament, Barnabas, whose name means son of encouragement, had a knack for seeing

people around him. In Acts 9, he was willing to give Saul a chance

when the other disciples were afraid of him.

Saul, also called Paul, had a history of persecuting believers in Jesus,

so they didn't think he really was a disciple.

Later, Paul and Barnabas had a disagreement over whether to take

Mark with them to visit the believers in all the towns where they preached. Paul didn't think it was

wise to bring Mark along because he deserted them earlier. Interestingly, in 2 Timothy 4, Paul later asked for Mark's assistance.

Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. Barnabas took time to

see both Paul and Mark. Perhaps we're in Barnabas's position to recognize potential in another person, or we're

that individual in need of a spiritual mentor.

May we ask God to lead us to those we can encourage and those who will encourage us.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Acts chapter 9,

verses 26 through 30.

When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how

Saul on his journey had seen the Lord, and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus

...