The Singer

            Dale Carnegie writes about a boy who was ten years old, who lived in Naples, Italy. He worked in a factory, but he deeply desired to be a professional singer. He found a teacher, but she gave him negative feedback, “You can't sing. You haven't any voice at all. It sounds like the wind in the shutters.”

            The boy's mother was certainly no expert when it came to music and voice. She was a simple peasant woman. Yet, her attitude toward her boy’s singing was different.

            She would often put her arms around him and encourage him and his singing. When she noticed improvements, she would rapidly tell him. She would sacrifice her personal comfort and go barefoot in order to pay for music lessons for her son.

            Because of that mother's encouragement, the boy's life was changed. We know him as in Enrico Caruso. He would go on to become the most famous opera singer of his generation.

            God values encouragement. “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing” (I Thess. 5:11.)