See Also:
Beginning of a FAMOUS Hero: The Albert Schweitzer Story.
Life Lesson #59 – Be an Encourager.
Courtney was so happy the day her parents brought home a brand new puppy and let her name him. “Buddy,” she said, “I’ll call him Buddy.” Well, Courtney took care of Buddy amazingly well. She kept him clean, and she worked with him continually to teach him good manners and even a few tricks.
One day when Buddy was almost a year old, Courtney had a friend over for the weekend and they did a lot of different things, including playing with the dog. At one point Courtney said, “Watch this,” as she directed Buddy to catch a dog biscuit in the air after she threw it from almost across the whole yard! It was pretty impressive until Courtney’s friend said, “Aw that’s nothing. I saw a dog on animal planet that could catch 40 balls in 30 seconds!” Well, it wasn’t NOTHING to Courtney. She had worked hard teaching Buddy to do that. She felt really discouraged the rest of the afternoon.
Courtney’s friend was like that—just constantly finding ways to put down other people’s efforts. Courtney had always been taught to encourage other people! The other girl was doing just the opposite of encouraging. She had a habit of DIScouraging others. Well, the girl finally went home, and over the next few weeks, Courtney continued to teach Buddy new things as her friend continued to find ways to discourage other people with her put-down comments.
Just think, if she would learn to say kind and uplifting things to others—things that would make them feel good about themselves instead of the negative and discouraging comments that make them feel bad, she could start being a HERO—today! It’s really pretty simple.
– Jim Lord