Discouragement deadlier than any pandemic

Discouragement deadlier than any pandemic
                        

“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” — William James.

A group of students was once asked what the number-one issue was facing their generation. Their answer took me aback when I read it — not drugs, not peer pressure, not even bullying. The number-one issue was the lack of encouragement.

Thinking about it makes perfect sense to me. I may have guessed another possibility, but no, all of the other things stem out of discouragement. It had been my observation that a discouraged person often needs to escape their reality by numbing themselves or by making other people feel less. It is so true that hurting people hurt other people.

The answer from the students sparked an idea that went all the way up to the president. In 2007 Gorge W. Bush declared every Sept. 12 the National Day of Encouragement. How many people know about that? I just saw it on the calendar about a week ago. I naturally thought it had something to do with 9/11, but now that I think about it, the day after 9/11 was a day of mourning.

Being a man who makes part of his living from encouraging people, I love the idea of a day of encouragement, but we should do so daily. We shouldn’t need a national day of encouragement; it needs to be every day. Encouragement is the wind under our wings; it gives us lift to soar with the eagles. No one likes being discouraged, but we have lost the ability to boost others. The world can be discouraging, but that is even more reason why we need to encourage each other daily.

The Bible tells us to do so in Hebrews 3:13, a verse that is talking about encouraging each other in spite of our sins. I think it’s a good reminder for us to lift people up every day. My wife is a perfect example of this. We can be in line at McDonald’s, and she sees the person who is taking the money is having a bad day. When she gets up to order, she ends by telling them they are doing a great job. That actually has gotten me started to tell people how nice they look and what a great job they are doing. The cool part about encouragement is it doesn’t take a whole lot, just our words.

In this economy $1 million equals $1 million, but when we encourage people, our words and actions cost zero dollars and can be worth far more than $1 million. Think about how much we love to hear words of positivity from someone — we can do it to someone else. There’s enough negativity; we need to bring encouragement into a hurting world. If we look through the card section at a store, we will see cards of encouragement — buy one and send it to someone who might be down. It could very well be the lift they need.

If you are like me, you probably think all of this sounds too simple. That’s because it is. It is the simple things in life that mean the most to people. Abraham Lincoln used to carry around a newspaper article with the headline that read, “Abraham Lincoln is the greatest statesman alive today.” It was in his pocket when he was killed. I have a seven-year-old letter in a frame from a man who lost most of his fingers in an accident; he was encouraged when somebody gave him a column I wrote.

If someone writes us words of encouragement, we need to hold onto them like gold. Keep things in front of you to lift you up, things that make you laugh and smile every time you look at them. We don’t need to carry them with us, but we can if we so choose. We live in a negative world, but if we do our part to bring a little sunshine into the world, we will be the better for it.


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