“Encouragement has the effect of a gentle rain; it causes steady growth.”

A thought by John C. Maxwell (2013-02-15) from his book, Be A People Person: Effective Leadership Through Effective Relationships (p. 162). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title of the book to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

Who in your life has encouraged you? It made a difference didn’t it?

John shares, “The secret of Andrew Carnegie’s genius for developing others was his ability to encourage good qualities while holding faultfinding to a minimum.”

He also says, “I have yet to find the person, whatever his or her station in life, who did not perform better under a spirit of approval than under criticism. There are enough critics in the world; what we need are more cheerleaders!”

Let me give you some words of encouragement from a poem that John shared:

“People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered— love them anyway!

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives— do good anyway!

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies— succeed anyway!

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow— do good anyway!

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable— be honest and frank anyway!

The biggest people with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest people with the smallest minds— think big anyway!

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs— fight for some underdog anyway!

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight— build anyway!

Give the world the best you’ve got and you’ll get kicked in the teeth— give the world the best you’ve got anyway!”

I want to cheer you on today. God created you to make a difference and He has great plans for you and through you. You have what it takes.

So who can you cheer on today?

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