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Encouragement

【Encouragement】I saw them tearing a building down,

A gang of men in a dusty town.

With a “yo heave ho” and lusty yell,

They swung a beam and the side wall fell.

I asked the foreman if these men were as skilled.

As the men he’d hire, if he were to build.

He laughed and said, “Oh, no indeed.

Common labor is all I need.”

For those men can wreck in a day or two,

What builders had taken years to do.

I asked myself as I sent my way,

Which kind of role am I to play?

Am I the builder who builds with care,

Measuring life by the rule and square?

Or am I the wrecker who walks the town,

Content with the role of tearing down?

【Encouragement】Encouragement is like a peanut butter sandwich—the more you spread it around, the better things stick together.

【Encouragement】Said Bear Bryant, one of the greatest college football coaches ever, when he was pushed to explain his philosophy of coaching: “There’s just three things I ever say to my players: ‘If anything goes bad, then I did it. If anything goes semi-good, then we did it. If anything goes real good, then you did it.’ That’s all it takes to get people to win football games for you. I can do that better than anybody.”

【Encouragement】In a 1978 interview, Low Holtz, at the time the head coach of the then number-one rated Arkansas Razorbacks, modeled and stated his philosophy of coaching. At practice, Holtz grabs his players by their face masks and shakes them; he flails at them with his hat; he throws his hat in disgust; he smacks players on the rear with his omnipresent manila folder. “Once you get things going, then you begin to build confidence.” He says. “You praise loudly and criticize softly.”

【Encouragement】Dr. Paul Tournier received the supreme compliment of life on day when an acquaintance came to visit him in his home. The acquaintance relayed a message from a third party, who had never met Dr. Tournier but had been helped through many of his writings. The message was: “You’ve going to see Paul Tournier in Switzerland. No doubt I shall never see him in this world, but tell him from me that he will be one of the first people I shall look out for in heaven.”