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Encouragement Can Work Miracles

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Someone said that encouragement is simply reminding a person

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of the “shoulders” he’s standing on,

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the heritage he’s been given.

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That’s what happened when a young man,

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the son of a star baseball player,

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was drafted by one of the minor-league teams.

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Hard as he tried,

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his first season was disappointing,

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and by midseason he expected to be released any day.

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The coaches were bewildered by his failure

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because he possessed all the characteristics of a superb athlete,

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but he couldn’t seem to incorporate those advantages

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into a coordinated effort.

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He seemed to have become disconnected from his potential.

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His future seemed darkest one day

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when he had already stuck out his first time at bat.

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Then he stepped up to the batter’s box again

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and quickly ran up two strikes.

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The catcher called a time-out

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and ran to the pitcher’s mound for a conference.

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While they were busy, the umpire,

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standing behind the plate,

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spoke casually to the boy.

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Then play resumed, the next pitch was thrown —

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and the young man knocked it out of the park.

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That was the turning point.

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From then on, he played the game with a new confidence and power

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that quickly drew the attention of the parent team,

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and he was called up to the majors.

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On the day he was leaving for the city,

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one of his coaches asked him what had caused such a turnaround.

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The young man replied that it was the encouraging remark

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the umpire had made that day

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when his baseball career had seemed doomed.

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“He told me I reminded him of all the times

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he had stood behind my dad in the batter’s box,”

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the boy explained.

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“He said I was holding the bat just the way Dad had held it.

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And he told me,

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‘I can see his genes in you;

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you have your father’s arms.

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After that, whenever I swung the bat,

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I just imagined I was using Dad’s arms instead of my own.”