POWER OF PRAISE
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
(1828-1882)was a renowned English poet and painter. One day, an old man
approached him with a few paintings. They were the old man's recent works. He
wanted Rossetti's comments about the quality of his paintings. Rossetti
examined them in detail and found that they displayed little merit and lacked any value for sale. Being a very
kind artist, Rossetti explained the facts without hurting the feelings of the
old man.
The old man thanked him for his comments and
then produced another set of old paintings, explaining that they were the works
of a young artist. Rossetti was obviously much impressed by the superb quality
of the second set of paintings and told the old man that the young man was
really talented and had a bright,
brilliant and promising future and with
proper encouragement and training, he would one day become a world-renowned
painter with excellent and exquisite contributions.
The old man was greatly moved by these
words. Tears rolled down his wrinkled cheeks. Rossetti asked him about the
young artist. "Is he your son?", he enquired.
The
old man replied, "No, Sir, the young man was myself. I painted these about
fifty years ago. If anyone had expressed a word of sincere appreciation at that
time, I would have developed my talents properly and become a great painter by
this time!" I got discouraged in my early years and gave up all attempts
to develop my talents.
Unfortunately there was no
one to discover the hidden talents in him in his early years. A word of
appreciation can work wonders. Appreciation and encouragement have motivated
and changed the lives of many and have enabled them to achieve success and greatness
in their profession.
St. Paul advises us to encourage one
another."So then, encourage one another with these words" {1 Thessalonians, 4: 18}. "And so encourage one another and help one another,
just as you are now doing" {1 Thessalonians,
5: 11}. "We urge you, our
brothers, to warn the idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with
everyone" {1 Thessalonians, 5: 14}.
"Let us be concerned
for one another, to help one another to show love and to do good...let us
encourage one another all the more..." {Hebrews, 10: 24, 25}.
........................................................................................................
© By: Dr. Babu Philip, Professor, Cochin University of
Science & Technology, Fine Arts Avenue, Kochi-682016, Kerala, India, Prof.
Mrs. Rajamma Babu, Former Professor, St. Dominic's College, Kanjirappally and
Leo. S. John, Maniparambil, Ooriyakunnath, Kunnumbhagom, Kanjirappally,
Kottayam-686507, Kerala, India.
For more moral stories, parables and anecdotes for
students, catechists, teachers and preachers, kindly visit our web-sites:
This
is Story No. 238 in the second site. Please click ‘Older
Posts’ at the bottom of a page to read previous stories and
click 'Newer Posts' at the bottom of a page to read newer stories
in these sites. Please click on a word in the 'Story Themes' to
read stories on that theme.
No comments:
Post a Comment