Today's Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul

February 15, 2004

Encouraging Words

Someone said that encouragement is simply reminding a person of the

" shoulders " he's standing on, the heritage he's been given. That's what happened

when a young man, the son of a star baseball player, was drafted by one of the

minor league teams. As hard as he tried, his first season was disappointing, and

by midseason he expected to be released any day.

The coaches were bewildered by his failure because he possessed all the

characteristics of a superb athlete, but he couldn't seem to incorporate those

advantages into a coordinated effort. He seemed to have become disconnected from

his potential.

His future seemed darkest one day when he had already struck out his first

time at bat. Then he stepped up to the batter's box again and quickly ran up two

strikes. The catcher called a time-out and trotted to the pitcher's mound for a

conference. While they were busy the umpire, standing behind the plate, spoke

casually to the boy.

Then play resumed, the next pitch was thrown - and the young man knocked

it out of the park. That was the turning point. From then on, he played the game

with a new confidence and power that quickly drew the attention of the parent

team, and he was called up to the majors.

On the day he was leaving for the city, one of his coaches asked him what

had caused such a turnaround. The young man replied it was the encouraging

remark the umpire had made that day when his baseball career had seemed doomed.

" He told me I reminded him of all the times he had stood behind my dad in

the batter's box, " the boy explained. " He said I was holding the bat just the

way Dad had held it. And he told me, 'I can see his genes in you; you have your

father's arms.' After that, whenever I swung the bat, I just imagined I was

using Dad's arms instead of my own. "

By Barbara ,

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