Week 33 Day 3

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Encourage

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Matthew 5:16

So let our lips and lives express

The holy gospel we profess;

So let our works and virtues shine

To prove the doctrine all divine.

Sometimes when a friend is down, when someone close to you is ready to give in, you need to do what Lincoln once did. A Union general was dog-tired and ready to resign. He told Lincoln in a letter that he couldn’t go on. Lincoln did what any good friend ought to do. He encouraged him and told him to hold on. “I have seen your dispatch expressing your unwillingness to break your hold where you are,” he wrote the general. “. . . Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible.” By giving the general a positive push, Lincoln gave him the internal strength to want to carry on. When those around you say they want to quit, do you spur them on or help them stop? Learn to encourage like Lincoln. Learn to help your friends “hold on with a bulldog grip.”