In 1965 Bart Starr was the quarterback for the Green Bay Packers. All during the football season, he had a little incentive game going with his son. Their agreement was that every time Bart, Jr. brought home from school a perfect paper, his father would give him ten cents.
This one particular Sunday, Bart Starr had a pretty bad game in St. Louis. He came back home late that night. He was worn out and discouraged. He had a bad day. He was physically hurting from painful hits during the game. He came into his bedroom and found a note attached to his pillow that said, “Dear Dad, I thought you played a great game. Love, Bart.” The boy had taped on the pillow a couple of very shiny dimes.
Starr’s son understood something. No one is perfect. Not even his father. All of us have days of failure and discouragement. All of us have days that we feel, “What’s the use? Why keep on going?”
It takes somebody very special to lift someone up. It takes somebody special to encourage someone who has failed, to put a couple of dimes on your friend’s pillow.
The Apostle Paul wrote, “. . . encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.” (I Thessalonians 5:14)
Here is a good challenge for us today. Look around for someone who has had a rough go of it and give them a couple of shiny dimes. Encouragement means everything!