An anxious heart weighs a man down,
but a kind word cheers him up.
—Proverbs 12:25
Contents of Abraham Lincoln’s pockets the night he was shot at Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865, are on display at the Library of Congress: two pairs of spectacles and a lens polisher, a pocketknife, a watch fob, a linen handkerchief, and a brown wallet containing a five-dollar Confederate note and eight newspaper clippings.
The clippings were favorable to the president’s leadership. They provided encouragement he needed at a time when the war had exhausted him, and he was in a brutal re-election campaign.
Encouragement! We all need it. Your resources may be limited, but your ability to encourage someone isn’t.
Encouraging words are “sweet to the soul and healing to the bones” (Prv 16:24). “Encourage one another and build each other up” (1 Thes 5:11).
An encouraging note from you could wind up in someone’s pocket.
Encouragement is often
more needed than instruction.