May 2, 2005

[Rev. Doc]

Our Good Intentions

"But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness."
Hebrews 3:13

Sometimes our good intentions in encouragement can be a source of pain.

Alexander de Seversky, U.S. aviator and engineer, was once visiting a fellow flyer in the hospital. The young man had just lost his leg; de Seversky, who had had an artificial leg for some time, tried to cheer him up. "The loss of a leg is not so great a calamity," he said. "If you get hit on a wooden leg, it doesn't hurt a bit! Try it!" The patient raised his walking stick and brought it down hard on de Seversky's leg. "You see," he said cheerfully. "If you hit an ordinary man like that, he'd be in bed for five days!" With that he left his friend and limped into the corridor, where he collapsed in excruciating pain. It seems the young man had struck de Seversky on his good leg!

Regardless of the outcome, we should do what we can to encourage others.

Prayer: Ask God to put you into contact with someone who needs uplifting today.

"Those who are lifting the world upward and onward are those who encourage more than criticize."
~Elizabeth Harrison