This is the National Day of Encouragement. What can you say or do to encouragement someone today?
Encouragement does so much more than criticism. For some odd reason, when I think of criticism, the picture of a woman springs to mind. Perhaps she is an imaginary shrew borne of reading books that had a mean, sharp-tongued person lurking within its pages, or perhaps she is a relic of an unpleasant childhood experience, or just my own wicked imagination. This unhappy woman is skinny, long-nosed and bitter-tongued, and she always has one bony finger pointed in my direction, telling me all the virtues and skills that I lack. Criticism. She sort of makes me want to crawl back into bed, pull the covers over my head and agree that my books and I will never amount to much. I don’t like her one bit!
However, encouragement! Ah, the elixir of life. It is funny that encouragement brings on a sudden desire to want to do better, to do more, to polish and shine until my literary offering is the best I can make it. That’s just the way of human beings. We like to be acknowledged as someone worthwhile, somebody unique and worthy of being noticed.
Children thrive on encouragement; it is like vitamins to a child’s emotional growth. But, guess what? We never outgrow that need. The road of life has its share of potholes, unexpected turns, and rocky places, but nothing smooths out the way in front of us more than encouragement. Each individual is unique and talented in some way or in many ways; everyone has a characteristic that is praise-worthy. Encouragement is like a polishing cloth on silver–it really brings out the shine.
Speak Your Mind