Leadership Thought:  Stories of the Power of the Personal Note.

Dear Friends,

For many years I have tried to make a regular habit of writing personal notes to people.

This letter writing habit was born many years ago when I received a wonderful letter of encouragement from a pastor in Norfolk Va. I had never met.

Pastor Sam Tatum had read an article about my involvement with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes while I was attending Virginia Military Institute. I remember being amazed that someone who never knew me would take the time to write such a wonderful letter of encouragement, and the memory of that letter birthed a desire in my heart to encourage others in the same way I had been encouraged.

I love writing notes of encouragement, but I love receiving them as well.

Just this morning I opened my computer to discover a note from a church architect who was a member of a former church I pastored. He was responding to a note I had sent him, and in it he reminded me of something that I had done that encouraged him while pastoring the church when he had been a member.

I can’t express how much his kind words of affirmation meant to me.

You never know how your letter of encouragement might brighten someone’s day, just as my friend’s letter did for me this morning.

In the first Chicken Soup for the Soul book, teacher, Sister Helen Mrosla recounted how a spur of the moment assignment in class became a source of encouragement for her students. On a day when her junior high math students were especially ornery, she asked them to write down what they liked about each of their fellow students. She then compiled the results over the weekend and handed out the list on the following Monday.

Years later, when one of the students, Mark, was killed in Vietnam, she, and some of those former students got together for the funeral. Afterward, Mark‘s father told the group, “They found this on Mark when he was killed,” and he showed them a folded, refolded, and taped paper – the one he had received years before from his teacher.

Right after that, Charlie, one of Mark‘s classmates, said,  “I keep my list  in my desk drawer.” Chuck’s wife said,  “Chuck put his in our wedding album.” “I have mine, too.” Marilyn said,  “in my diary.”

Each person cherished the kind words of encouragement they had received.  That’s the power of a few kind words.”

Story taken from the Maxwell Daily Reader, John Maxwell p. 356.

How true it is that “Kind words are short and easy to speak (write) but their echoes are endless.” Mother Teresa

So, get writing that letter today.

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom