Take Heart: The Magnificent Power of Encouragement
The words encouragement, discouragement and courage all stem from the Latin root cor, meaning “heart.” Over and over in the book of Joshua, God commanded Joshua to take courage and claim the land that the Lord had given to His people, saying: “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9).
The words encouragement, discouragement and courage all stem from the Latin root cor, meaning “heart.” Over and over in the book of Joshua, God commanded Joshua to take courage and claim the land that the Lord had given to His people, saying: “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9).
In her book The Creative Call, Janice Elsheimer writes, “Encourage means ‘to inspire with hope, courage, or confidence: to give support to, foster.’ Discourage means ‘to deprive of confidence, hope, or spirit’ . . . The encouragers in our lives are those who have helped us take heart and find courage to become the people God intends us to be. The discouragers are the ones who disapproved of any designs we had to follow our hearts rather than our heads in choosing our life’s pursuit. Discouragers may or may not have intended to cause us to be ‘fainthearted’ and give up on our goals, but regardless of their intentions, the result of their discouragement was the same. Lacking the courage to believe in and follow our dreams, we learned to close our eyes to our visions. Our confidence in our ability to succeed was eroded by discouraging messages coming from the people who knew and loved us most.”
When a girl named Mary was nearing high-school graduation, she told her guidance counselor that she wanted to pursue the desire of her heart—to illustrate children’s books. The counselor disdainfully told her, "You can’t do that. You’ve got to be practical. Get a degree in English so you can teach." Ignoring that advice, Mary got a job at an art supply shop, learned all she could about different media and how to use them, and got to know all kinds of working artists. Once she realized that people actually did make a living as artists, she turned her energies and talents toward making her dream a reality. Mary Engelbreit overcame the discouraging words of others to become one of the world’s most successful commercial artists.
Whenever she became disheartened, Englebreit would remember how, even at a young age, her parents had encouraged her to pursue her artwork. When she was nine, Mary announced that she needed a studio, and her mother promptly converted a linen closet into one for her. "From that time on," Englebreit says, "my parents always treated my art as serious business. Bolstered by their support, I continued on even without formal training, telling myself over and over what they had instilled in me: ‘Of course you can become an artist. Keep working on it. If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it.’”
Even at the tender age of nine, Mary had parents who recognized and cultivated her giftedness. Rather than shooting arrows at her dream, they gave it wings to soar.
When we speak words of encouragement, when we let life-giving words flow from our mouths to another’s soul, we “give heart” to that person. When we speak words of discouragement, when we become “joy stealers,” we cause others to lose heart.
