I was traveling home from a conference this week, and the final leg of my journey found me on a very small plane. The kind of small where overhead bins are non-existent, where personal space isn’t an option, and where the conversations held between passengers are far from private. Also the kind of small where you never see the tops of the clouds and the gusty winds shift everything – your stomach included – side to side and up and down.

To say I was happily distracted by eavesdropping on the passengers behind me would be an understatement. For 25 bumpy minutes I listened to total strangers make small talk in a way that I’ve never been able to master. She was a college student from the south studying engineering and flying for job interviews. I didn’t catch where he was from or what he did, but as I listened I learned about what brought them joy, what their vices were, what their workplace weaknesses were. I was completely delighted by the young college student who loved problem-solving with the charming accent, and fascinated by the gentleman beside her who shared stories of successful career women that he had learned from and the mistakes he regretted making in his own job interviews.

She was passionate about real-life time with friends, and neither of them owned the latest or greatest smartphone. After the flight landed they stood and he offered life-giving words of encouragement to a young lady he would never see again. They knew their words mattered, and they used them wisely – with no expectation other than offering kindness to a stranger who was sharing their personal space for a short moment in time.

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We’re excited to offer a “words matter” link-up today, to share encouragement with you from some amazing women who have partnered with (in)courage to share their stories – and the new Words Matter Letterpress Blocks  – with their communities. And if you’ve purchased a Letterpress Block word and have written about it, we’d love for you to join us today, too!

As a super fun bonus, we’ll be choosing one random winner from those who join the link-up to win a $200 giftcard to DaySpring.com! Yay!

To link up, simply follow the instructions in the link-up widget below (email subscribers will need to click through to access the link-up tool) and then come back and visit a few fellow word-loving sisters and read their stories. The link-up will stay open until next Tuesday (11/4) and we’ll contact the winner via email.

Your words matter. Let’s share them! 

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