The Power of Encouragement

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the famous 19th-century poet and artist, was once approached by an elderly man. The old fellow had some sketches and drawings that he wanted Rossetti to look at and tell him if they were any good, or if they at least showed potential talent.

Rossetti looked them over carefully. After the first few, he knew that they were worthless, showing not the least sign of artistic talent. But Rossetti was a kind man, and he told the elderly man as gently as possible that the pictures were without much value and showed little talent. He was sorry, but he could not lie to the man.

The visitor was disappointed, but seemed to expect Rossetti’s judgement. He then apologized for taking up Rossetti’s time, but would he just look at a few more drawings – these done by a young art student?

Rossetti looked over the second batch of sketches and immediately became enthusiastic over the talent they revealed. “These,” he said, “Oh, these are good. This young student has great talent. He should be given every help and encouragement in his career as an artist. He has a great future if he will work hard and stick to it.”

Rossetti could see that the old fellow was deeply moved. “Who is this fine young artist?” he asked. “Your son?”

“No,” said the old man sadly. “It is me — 40 years ago. If only I had heard your praise then! For you see, I got discouraged and gave up — too soon.”

Anonymous Encouragers

In early 2010, 16-year old Jennifer Grimes of Jacksonville, Texas, wanted to encourage others in following Christ. “I thought I’d tell you about a project my sister and I have started called Anonymous Encouragers,” said Jennifer. “Basically, it’s an idea to write strangers found in the phone book of your town anonymously (without putting your name or return address). The letters are usually short and always include an encouraging Bible verse. Anyway, we started it a couple of weeks ago and are writing one person each week.”

Jennifer’s achievable goal of one person a week will have her encouraging 52 people each year. She has signed up her sister and enlisted others to write letters. “My prayer is that not only the people that receive the letters be encouraged but even the ones that write them.”

A Box Full of Kisses

The story goes that some time ago, a man punished his 3-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree. Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said, “This is for you, Daddy.”

The man was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found out the box was empty. He yelled at her, stating, “Don’t you know, when you give someone a present, there is supposed to be something inside? The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and cried, “Oh, Daddy, it’s not empty at all. I blew kisses into the box. They’re all for you, Daddy.”

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged for her forgiveness.

Only a short time later, an accident took the life of the child.

It is also told that her father kept that gold box by his bed for many years and, whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.

In a very real sense, each one of us, as humans beings, have been given a gold container filled with unconditional love and kisses… from our children, family members, friends, and God. There is simply no other possession, anyone could hold, more precious than this.

The Frogs and the Tower

There once was a bunch of tiny frogs who arranged a running competition. The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower. A big crowd had gathered around the tower to see the race and cheer on the contestants.

The race began.

Honestly, no-one in crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would reach the top of the tower. You heard statements such as:

“Oh, WAY too difficult!!”

“They will NEVER make it to the top”.

“Not a chance that they will succeed. The tower is too high!”

The tiny frogs began collapsing. One by one. Except for those who in a fresh tempo were climbing higher and higher. The crowd continued to yell

“It is too difficult!!! No one will make it!”

More tiny frogs got tired and gave up.But ONE continued higher and higher and higher. This one wouldn’t give up!

At the end, everyone else had given up climbing the tower. Except for the one tiny frog who, after a big effort, was the only one who reached the top!

THEN all of the other tiny frogs naturally wanted to know how this one frog managed to do it?

A contestant asked the tiny frog how the one who succeeded had found the strength to reach the goal?

It turned out…

That the winner was deaf.