THE POWER OF DISCOURAGEMENT

Back in 1980, our family was preparing to go as missionaries to what was then called Zaire (now DR Congo).  I was leaving many ministries in which I had been involved in the US, some of them in our local church.  I had put my whole heart into those ministries.  Now that we were leaving, I had been praying about what I might do to help my local church in a longer term way—something I might do now that would still help while we were in Africa.  I had done some teacher training for the church, so one idea I had was to make tape recordings of my ideas for different areas of ministry.  Those who came after me could learn from the recordings.

I was quite enthusiastic about the project.  During Junior church one week, my helper taught the memory verse.  I felt I had a lot of ideas that could help her, so I made my first recording on teaching the memory verse.  It was designed to be part motivation and part instruction.  I gave her the recording.  The next week I was very gratified at how much more engaging the memory teaching was.

The subject came up with a friend who was related to the memory helper, and I mentioned how helpful the tape had been.  Right away she snapped, “Did she tell you that?”  I stared at her with my mouth open.  I was confused.  My helper had obviously done a much better job, so I had assumed that the tape had been helpful.

“She doesn’t want to have to be listening to all that just to teach the memory verse,” my friend explained.  It’s too much.

Her words stung.  Had I been presumptuous to think that I had some ideas that other teachers might want to hear?  Did God want to humble me to that I would not go to the mission field feeling I had all the answers?  Was the recording just a little too long?  Had I mistaken God’s voice entirely in telling me to make the tapes?  I still don’t know, but I never made another recording, nor did I ever again loan out the first one I had made.  In fact I entirely gave up the idea of doing something before I left that might help my local church after I was in Africa.  As I look back on the incident, the only thing I am sure of is that it taught me the power of a discouraging word.  It showed me how quickly a single discouraging comment can bring a project to nothing.

Fortunately, it was many, many years before I again was the recipient of such discouraging words.  Thank the Lord, in the meantime, many people spoke positive, encouraging words into my life.

The experience left one thing with me very profoundly:  Whether other people’s attempts at ministry are all they should be or not, I want to be an encourager and not a discourager.