The Gift Of A Hopeful Word

The Gift of a Hopeful Word

It is wonderful to say the right thing at the right time!

Proverbs 15:23

He was a poor wretch of a little boy who didn’t seem to have a chance. His father and part of his family had been put in debtors’ prison. He’d been able to attend school for only four years, and he was often hungry. Though he had a bright, curious mind and loved to read, when he was only twelve years old, he was put to work in a rat-infested warehouse, putting labels on bottles. He found lodging in a drafty attic room with two other boys from the slums of London.

But he wanted to write. Ideas and imaginative stories filled the boy’s mind, and he wrote them down. He mailed his first manuscript in the middle of the night so he wouldn’t be laughed at, but story after story came back to him, rejected. When his first story was finally accepted, the publishers paid him nothing. But the editor wrote words praising his work and his potential as a writer. The young man was so overjoyed he wept. The hopeful words from the editor gave him a bright expectation for the future and changed his whole life.

He continued to write in his dark attic room, with even greater desire and enthusiasm. Without that editor’s few words of praise, the young man might have stayed in the dark factories, and the world would have been much poorer for lack of his writing.

The boy’s name was Charles Dickens, and he became the most famous writer of his era, the genius behind such timeless works as A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, and A Christmas Carol.

With Dickens’s amazing creativity, he brought to light the appalling social conditions of the Victorian era, particularly for poor children, and his books have inspired generations throughout the world. Just like the words of that editor, your words are powerful and have a big impact on people. Use them well! —CHERI

Lord, give me just the right words to speak to people at just the right time to inspire hope. May my words fill their emotional tank and fuel their dreams instead of discourage them.

There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something tomorrow.

—O. S. MARDEN (1850–1924), AUTHOR, FOUNDER OF THE MODERN SUCCESS MOVEMENT