Nurturing | Criticism | Encouragement

“So give encouragement to each another, and keep strengthening one another, as you already do”
(I Thessalonians 5:11).

Many years ago, at the University of Wisconsin, there was an undergraduate literary club — a group of brilliant male students who had demonstrated considerable talent for writing. They met regularly and, at each meeting, one of the members would read aloud a story or an essay he had written, and then submit it to the criticism of the others. When the criticism got underway, no punches were pulled. Nothing was held back. The material was mercilessly dissected, almost line by line. So brutal were the sessions that the members called themselves “The Stranglers.” Then a similar club was formed. It was called “The Wranglers,” and its membership consisted of female undergraduates who had demonstrated considerable literary talent. They too read their manuscripts aloud at their meetings, and then submitted them to the other members’ critiques. But there was a significant difference in the criticism. It…