See Also:
Beginning of a FAMOUS Hero: The Randy Sparks Story.
Life Lesson #59 – Be an Encourager.
When the doorbell rang, Armando was glad to see it was his friend from down the street. The boys were also in the same class at school, and often they went to each other’s houses. Armando and his sister, Gabriella, were in the middle of practicing their music when his friend showed up, so he invited his friend inside, but asked if he could just wait a few minutes while they finished practicing.
Armando played the cello, and Gabriella played the piano. They were working on a piece of music to play in a recital in a few weeks. But as they played, Armando’s friend started laughing. “What’s so funny,” asked Gabriella? The boy said, “What’s so funny!? If you could hear yourselves like I’m hearing you, you’d laugh, too!” Well, yes, it’s true that Armando and Gabriella were not professional musicians, YET, but they were working at it, and they were actually pretty good for the short time they had been playing their instruments.
Gabriella ran out of the room crying. Then Armando said to his friend, “Why did you do that?” And he went on to say, “Maybe if you tried to learn something new once in a while, you wouldn’t laugh at other people when they are trying. Maybe you would encourage them instead of putting them down.”
Well, the boy didn’t know what to say, so he just left. On his was home, he realized Armando was right. He never tried to learn anything new because he was afraid he might embarrass himself. And he began to realize that if he started working to make himself a better person, then he could encourage others as they tried to make themselves better. He realized that he had been a DIScourager, instead of an encourager, but today all that changes.
– Jim Lord