Discouragement Comes to All of Us…

Discouragement is said to be one of the most effective tools of the devil. And “Despondency,” said De Witt Talmage, “is the most unprofitable feeling a man can indulge in.” All of us begin many good things, which, because of discouragement, we fail to finish⎯and so we lose time in false starts and premature stops. And if anyone wanted to see us waste our lives, he wouldn’t have to tempt us to do something obviously sinful. He would only have to discourage us to the point of giving up doing what we should be doing, and make us feel that we were failures. Thus much of life would be wasted. And yet discouragement comes to all of us. No one ever conquered a bad habit without discouragement and without earnest effort. No one ever acquired an adequate education or any real competence without discouragement and purposeful practice and persistence. No one has ever lived without discouragement. We grow by doing, by enduring, and not giving in to the first difficulty. “Whatever the situation,…” said Cr. Fosdick, “and however… disheartening it may be, it is a great hour when a man ceases adopting [difficulties] as an excuse for despondency and tackles himself as the real problem. No mood need be his master…. Remember others. Emotions are contagious… [and] can infect a whole household.” As each day brings its “petty round of irritating concerns and duties, help us to play the man,” pleaded Robert Louis Stevenson, “help… us to go on our business all this day, bring us to our resting beds weary and content and undishonored, and grant us in the end the gift of sleep.” And finally, as Ian Maclaren said it: “Let us be kind to one another, for most of us are fighting a hard battle…”