One of the greatest tools we have to help people is the tool of encouragement. We are told in I Thessalonians 5:11, “Therefore encourage one another an build one another up, just as you are doing.”
Jonas Sulk, the great scientist and the discoverer of the vaccine against polio, was taught the principle of encouragement. He was once asked, “How does this amazing discovery which has literally brought an end to the word polio in our world vocabulary, cause you to evaluate your previous 200 failures?” His response was, “I never failed 200 times in my life. My family did not think in terms of failure. They taught in terms of experiences and what could be learned. I just made my 201st discovery as the cure for polio. I could not have accomplished it without learning from the 200 previous experiences.”
Another person raised with encouragement was Winston Churchill. He was not discouraged by errors. When he made one, he just evaluated the problem again. A reporter asked him, “Sir Winston, what in your school experience best prepared you to lead Britain out of her darkest hour?”
He thought a moment and replied, “It was the two years I spent in the same grade in high school.”
“Did you fail?,” they asked. “No, I had two opportunities to get it right. What Britain needed was not brilliance, but perseverance when things were going badly.”
Let’s determine to encourage others around us and to be encouraged in our own lives. What can we see happen if we “try, try again?” May the Lord use you in a wonderful way this week.
Dr. David Bouler of Global Faith Ministries, Chattanooga, Tennessee, contributed this column to the Journal Review. He can be reached by email at debouler@aol.com.
