Be an encourager

August 1, 2018 | 14 comments

“Correction does much. But encouragement does more.”

When working with children, peers, family members, those in distress, or those who are struggling with failure, a few words of encouragement can go a long way to helping them stay the course to success.

Boosting their courage to not give up and to continue working toward worthy goals can be the most effective corrective they hear.

Love finds a way.

14 thoughts on “Be an encourager”

  1. So true! – Thank you.

    It might be noteworthy that the quote is a translation of Johann Wolfgang v. Goethe’s words: “Lehre tut viel, aber Aufmunterung tut alles” (1830), meaning:
    >Instruction does much but encouragement does it all.<

      1. You’re welcome, Uta! 🙂

        Here’s another good one:

        “So speak encouraging words to one another. Build up hope so you’ll all be together in this, no one left out, no one left behind. I know you’re already doing this; just keep on doing it.”

        1 Thessalonians 5:11 (from The Message Bible)

        1. Oh, thank you Gaby, for that really wonderful vers from 1. Thessalonians 5:11.

          That Love for one another in that vers is much lovelier and a l l encompassing in God`s compassion and Love stated in The Message Bible as it is in the German Luther Bibel.

          Wow, is that an interesting and inspiring commenting today.
          thank you also for the cat-comments, very lovely. Once I used to have a Siamese cat boy.

          What a blessing is Evan`s SpiritView blog – am so grateful for it!

  2. thank you Evan, for the very wise and salutary recommendation of today`s SpiritView!

    Thanks a lot for the most important part “Love finds a way” always!!

    1. Thank you Gaby and Uta for relating Goethe to Evan’s dialogue “initiative.

      I’m also grateful to my friend Laurel in Michigan for introducing me to Spirit View. I look forward to reading, absorbing and then maneuvering my daily activities around the chosen messages.

      Brian’s cat story brought a big smile to my face – I treasure all furry faces – but cats are such special beings and I feel blessed to have shared my life with several of them, one as precious as the next one..

  3. Clinging to this today…knowing there is power in the word. So easy to declare and yet… to get the human to follow when something seems to have gone on so long that one feels war torn…
    So grateful for the daily encouragement from all here on SpiritView. Your love lifts me up many days. Thank you.

  4. Thank you Evan. I echo Anna’s comment…Excellent!

    My wife is a huge cat lover. She recently got us tickets to see a trained cat acrobatic program. My family always had a cat when I was young and I’ve had cats as an adult too so when my wife told me about this program I was intrigued to see if anyone could be successful training cats to do ANYTHING. In fact, people often say “It’s like herding cats” as a way of describing a group of uncooperative people. 🙂

    During the program the lady that has trained the cats gave a brief description to the audience of her cat training technique. She said she only rewards the cats when they do something right and never gives the cats any negative feedback. She obviously loved her cats dearly and only gave them encouragement. I think what works with cats also works with other life forms, so I was happy to see you point that out in the blog today Evan!

    I think humans sometimes like to criticize or tell other people what they think the other person is doing wrong because it makes them feel superior. The news media too often seems to want to focus on the negative instead of the positive. Wouldn’t the world be a much more peaceful place if everyone practiced providing more encouragement and less criticism of others?

  5. Thank you Evan. So true. Brian your remarks re training cats is interesting in that there were
    The Savinsky Trained Cats on America’s Got Talent last night (had also seen them during auditions doing different things). Wonder if they are same ones you saw? Was amazing, Was very first act last night and they are moving on to live shows. Watch preview prior to act, as it has some from their audition night. All things are possible aren’t they!

    1. Hi Mary Ann, The cats I saw were different and were called “The Amazing Acro-cats”. But thanks for the tip about the TV show that had trained cats. I’ll try to see if I can view that via On Demand programming. Sounds amazing.

  6. So true, Evan! I’ve seen it operate, especially with teaching piano over many years. Honest joy when someone succeeds, and encouragement along the way reaps rewards. A former student, now a manager at a Hawaiian hotel, saw me in the lobby, called out to me, rushed over and gave me a hug. It had been years since I had last seen him. Encouragement not only blesses the person receiving it, but also the one who gives it! It is Love in action.

  7. Being a huge cat fan, I too loved The Savinsky cats for their beauty and talent, but also for the love that was so strongly expressed by the owners. It just radiated! Also, so much for the erroneous thought that cats can’t be trained! My four furry tabby cats will join me cheering them on at the finals. Evan thank you so much for SpiritView. It brings so much joy and inspiration each day and a chance for many readers to share helpful ideas.

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