[L]et us consider how we may spur one another
on toward love and good deeds.
—Hebrews 10:24
A common ingredient in the lives of people who have lived up to their potential is the gift of encouragement. Someone believed in them, supported them, ignited the fire.
For John Wesley, it was his mother, Susanna.
For John Quincy Adams, it was his father, John.
For cleric Henry Ward Beecher, it was a teacher who taught only one year in the rural elementary school he attended.
For humanitarian and author Stanley Mooneyham, it was a County Superintendent of Schools.
For Paul Harvey, it was his widowed mother Anna and his beloved elementary school teacher, Miss Harp.
For American Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, it was her grandparents, Ron and Nellie Biles.
Your influence touches someone, whose influence touches someone, whose influence touches someone . . . in other words, your influence has no end point.
There’s something you may not be able to do,
but someone you influence may.