CONSTANT ENCOURAGEMENT
For many years a country church in Iowa set aside one Sunday annually for youth to conduct the entire service. The young people did it all: call to worship, invocation, prayer, special music, announcements, choir, and one young person would deliver the sermon. One year a 16- year-old boy was told that it was “his year.” He practiced for days until he could give the twenty-minute sermon with the help of just a few notes written on one side of a three by five index card. Sunday morning arrived. The other youths did their parts exceptionally well. When it was time, the young man walked to the pulpit–and his mind went blank. He looked at the index card, spoke for two minutes, and sat down. As the congregation sang the closing hymn, the young man thought, “I am never going to speak in public again, absolutely, positively not.” As the service ended the young man dashed for the exit, only to be…
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